Netanyahu is also Merz's daddy.
Relationship status: itβs complicated
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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I mean, it is embarrassing but the strategy is clear here. Don't piss off Daddy in hope to prolong the support for Ukraine (or preventing the support for Russia).
The EU and especially Germany has been grabbed by the nuts by the speed the US is leaving the show in Europe. Germany is doing as much for building up the military as the German society can take, it was admired for this strategy some time ago.
But they need a couple of more years to gain real independence (if they succeed). And for this time, they are vulnerable.
I see the hipocrisy, sure, but I don't think it's just stupid, but a strategy. I am genuinely interested, what would you guys do?
The trouble is that on a lot of topics, the German government and especially Merz' party clearly aren't interested in independence. It's very obvious with digital services.
Just look at Merz' employment history and you know why. He is bought by the US investment firm Black Rock. It's as complicated as this.
It's much easier to complain that to acknowledge real world complexities. Ukraine cannot, not could most of Europe, survive Russian agression without American command and control systems as that's how NATO has run for decades in part to avoid costly duplication.
Now, a gangater is using that alliance as a point of vulnerability to shakerown "allies" and people get whiny about the digital services stuff. Europe has a really brutal hand to play right now and it sucks.
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The fact that so many people don't understand this is nuts to me. There's the military gear support for Ukraine case, the Greenland case, the tariffs case, the AI tech case, all the IT services case - all of that crap that Trump, sufficiently annoyed, can just take away from the EU. It's clear that Congress is no longer functional and US slid into dictatorship, so there's nobody who could stop him. Which means that, when we see him illegally invading a sovereign country, we say "it's complicated".
My brother in Christ, we've known that since the beginning.
Reliance of defense on the US without owning nukes was bad, but digital services should have never left the continent.
US was two steps from fascism at least since the 2001.
I don't see how the same people in EU will change the course. Because I don't believe they want to.
And I worry only the alt right will benefit from it.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lys%C3%A9e_Treaty
Just two months after the signing of the friendship treaty, a new controversy between France and West Germany occurred. President de Gaulle intended the treaty to make West Germany distance itself and eventually separate itself from its American protector. He saw West Germany (and the other member states of the European Economic Community) as vassalized by Washington. The treaty was notable in that it made no mention of the United States, United Kingdom, NATO, or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).[9]
However, after US President John F. Kennedy expressed his displeasure about this to the West German ambassador to the United States, the Bundestag ratified the treaty with a preamble which called on France and West Germany to pursue tight cooperation with the United States; the eventual admission of the United Kingdom to the EEC; the achievement of a free trade accord in the framework of the GATT; and for the West's military integration in NATO under US leadership.[10] This effectively emptied the Treaty of any sense (in Gaullist understanding) and put end to General de Gaulle's hopes of building the EEC into a counterweight to the US and the USSR. "The Germans are behaving like pigs. They are putting themselves completely at the Americans' service. They're betraying the spirit of the Franco-German Treaty. And they're betraying Europe."[11] Later, in 1965, the General told his closest aides behind closed doors: "The Germans had been my greatest hope; they are my greatest disappointment."[12]
This shit has been going on since 1963...
As much as I like the French surrender jokes, they have been the greatest advocates of a strong and independent Europe for the last 80 years, from de Gaulle then to Sarkozy now (domestic popularity aside). They are on to something...
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"this is not the time to comment on the legality of the recent actions." ...
Colonialism/Imperialism in a nutshell.
Of fucking course now is the time. When would that be, in a couple of months when all is done and settled?
unimaginable suffering
I mean, I know he was shitty but really? Because my imagination for suffering has increased quite a bit over the past year.
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Same post when Greenland's taken presumably?
Seems like it's always the same. Dictators push borders and take over lands -> "Oh that's illegal and very bad, but they'll be satisfied with that and stop there" -> dictators take over another country -> "Oh that's illegal and very bad, but they'll stop there" -> rinse and repeat until it's close enough to your country. "Who could have seen this coming?!"
Can't wait for the Chicago agreement where France and Germany let the US annex Greenland but America has to super pinky promise not to annex the rest of Denmark
And in the same breath Denmark buys 300 F-47s
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"It's complex"
translation: "It's very simple, it was illegal. But I won't ever say it. That's my job, you see."
Isn't the legal classification is complex some diplomatic version of you fucked up, but we're ready to believe your lawyer?
Adding an acceptability benchmark to it, feel like preety critical considering the strong tie between US and Germany.
You're not wrong but pushing the intended conclusion anyway (regime change) is pretty egregious imo
For those outside of the loop, this US pawn worked for Blackrock, this reaction is wholly unsurprising.
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As an American, it's complex in that it's definitely illegal, but it went faster than expected and we aren't really in a "just put them back and apologize" situation. So now what?
It is complex because international law is only based on consent and there is no authority to enforce it (at least not against the USA). So nobody can really punish this but many will adapt their procedures now in all kinds of ways and nobody knows what exactly the others will do.
It is not complex in the sense that this isn't new. The USA always were above certain international laws, like not acknowledging the International Criminal Court. The USA have a long history of meddling in other countries. Prisoners in Guantanamo were/are a similar "cannot just put them back and apologize" situation.
After the cold war, the USA acted as the global police for a "rules-based world order" but apparently they don't want to anymore. That isn't even a Trump thing. Biden was also less "rules-based" than Obama, for example. Thus, we are shifting to a multi-polar world and I don't see that shift stopping any time soon. Some say that China and Russia are "challenging" the rules-based order but in my opinion the change is also pushed on by the USA.
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Merz is mentally ill and needs therapy. The narcissistic p.o.s. is not fit to do the job he was elected to do. Sadly, most of the Germans are dumb enough to not see a problem with that.
/a German
Well I mean he managed to get the lowest approval rating of any chancellor ever. I wouldnβt say that Germans in general are too dumb to see the issues with Merz.
Enough people were stupid enough to get him elected even when all the intelligent people knew he would screw the nation. We could have had Habeck, but germany was too stupid.
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We are too dumb to elect someone else, though. And IMO, Merz isn't that much worse than his party colleagues, his party (and all other German rightwing parties) just sucks, and Germans are definitely not voting less rightwing these days.
Seems like German politicians come in only 2 types: neo-nazi or wet cardboard.
(I hope I don't offend you, I am not German, just telling an outside perspective)
Actually there is a third category... Elon Musk!
Wait.... wait... no that's just the first category again :/
no offense taken. as others have pointed out, we do however have capable politicians, it's just that the majority of Germans are too dumb to vote in their own interest (not particularly a German trait, I suppose).
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not fit to do the job he was elected to do
But he was elected to do what he is doing!
Can't wait to see what all those spineless politicians will say when Trump appoints a Governor of Venezuela.
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I do realise we are vulnerable right now because we let the US handle everything security related. And now we're paying the price for it, but is appeasement really the proper strategy here?
No, they are complicit. All the elites are just playing games against each other, using their pawns (us). The only time we get a break, is when our interests happen to align with other elites.
Donβt call them βelitesβ because they arenβt good at anything. Call them what they are, oligarchs. Then eat the rich.
Only option for Europe i see going forward is heavy militarization. Usa is no longer an ally in any real capacity
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Legally trivial, morally complex and very much dependant on the outcome.
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