Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
This is the first nation stepping up and saying what a lot of them are thinking. When the intelligence community that has been cooperating in sharing information makes moves to cut out the Americans, that speaks volumes of the feeling of the rest of the world. Germany is taking the first step away from the United States. More will follow as they have taken steps to operate at arms length now. You would know this if you had been paying attention to anything in the past 4 or 5 months.
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I think what is happening is pretty natural, actually. It's been 70 years since the end of WW2. Germany has always strived to be the preeminent power on the Continent. This formed the basis of Unification, and all of the German wars of expansion. It is hard to say why this is the case, but it has always clashed with French patriotism and the Russian obsession with security. For better or worse, American domination of the Continent accompanied the longest period of peace that Europe has ever seen.
A resurgent Germany, looking to lead the way on its own interests, was probably inevitable, but it won't come without pretty serious consequences. That is, it is extremely stupid to imagine that Germany represents any kind of pan-European consensus, quite the opposite really. The British will stay in the American orbit (intelligence leaks aside), the French will go their own way, and who is to say what happens next?