Germany is the most anti-American state in Europe

Writes Victor Davis Hanson

President Trump recently ordered the removal of about 12,000 troops from US military personnel stationed in Germany. After that, about 24 thousand American soldiers will remain in that country.

A little over half of the pulled bodies will return home. The others will be deployed to other NATO member states, both in Belgium, Italy, and possibly in the states of Baltic and Eastern European countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to be furious. It claims that the defeat will be “weakened NATO coalition”. German commercial interests threatened, saying troop withdrawal would harm their decades-old businesses in providing services at US bases.

Maybe, but Merkel probably couldn't have been surprised. Six years ago, all NATO members pledged to spend 2 per cent of BPV in defence. However, only eight of the twenty - nine have kept their word. Germany spends only about 1.4 percent of BPV in defence. As the largest, richest and most powerful European member NATO, it leads with example to others in the alliance.

Do not contain the 2014 pledge by Merkel helps understand why less affluent and less influential members in the alliance also see no reason to stick to their obligations.

Germany certainly knows 2020 ta marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the 29th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the symbolic end of the Cold War.

Will a moment come in the future when Europe will have sufficient confidence to become a full partner of the United States of America (SHBA), rather than a client of eight decades?

NATO, of course, still offers common Europe protection, but usually by relying heavily on the US military contribution. This addiction seems even more bizarre when the European Union has BPVAs nearly equal to America.

Most importantly, the threat to NATO is now found in the cruel member Turkey, especially with Greece's harassment and the growing aggressive stance in the Middle East.

Russia always poses a threat to Europe. But the conflicting points are no longer likely at Germany's border, but more eastward, in the states of Baltic, or at the border between Russia and Poland.

Furthermore, Merkel's government has arrived, despite American complaints, a major natural gas deal with Russia that is now under some US sanctions and with a lack of cash.

Russia's energy exports to Germany reportedly bring them $10 billion a year, which will most likely double when the additional pipeline to Germany is completed.

Merkel likes teaching the world on moral issues, but what's so honest about strengthening Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recently annexed the Crimea and seems to be driving Belarus now? Like a modern - day Justinian who turned many of the lost Roman Empire, Putin seems to think he can absorb the lost Soviet republics.

In recent polls, Germans are more anti-American than any other nation in Europe. While about 75 percent of Americans believe that the United States still has a good relationship with Germany, about a third of Germans think the same about the United States. In some polls, nearly half the German population wants American troops to leave.

It should be suggested that Germany collects the surplus of annual trade with the US, more than any state in Europe approximately 55 billion to 70 billion in most years. The Trump administration says this value has been increased mainly due to asimetry on tariffs and taxes, where Germany is far from the most protectionist of two partners.

With Germany now united, rich, and often angry, as well as the nearly removed software threat, it is Germany -- it has changed its view of once solid partnership with the US.

Do you really believe Merkel that if her country makes big deals with NATO's greatest and historic threat, it is the most anti-American state in Europe, and continues to refuse to keep promises of increased defence spending, Germany still deserves a huge American commitment of 36 thousand troops as its security anchor?

There is a warning that the Trump administration and other European states would probably have to consider.

According to the founders, NATO was created for three reasons: to always keep the aggressive Russians out of Europe, to keep American Isolationists inside of them to protect it, and to keep the tough Germans in subjection to avoid repeating their invasions that sparked both world wars.

In other words, the great commitment to protecting Germany often ungrateful over eight decades was not created as a central base from which to protect Europe from Russia's old ambitions but also to commemorate the Germans in their complex past.

This third mission seems fossilized and ridiculous now. But it hasn't been completely forgotten, and it might be the explanation of why many in Europe and some in Germany care when American soldiers leave Germany.

(Vyctor Davis Hanson is a well-known historian and lawmaker in the United States. This article is published in the U.S. National Review magazine.