Decades of German Pacifism Yield to Bigger Military Role

[alp227]

When Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted a recent reception for military families, she greeted parents, wives and children whose loved ones were spending their holidays in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kosovo and off the Horn of Africa. German deployments overseas, Ms. Merkel said, “will soon encompass the entire globe.”

On that same wintry afternoon, members of Parliament debated whether to add to the nearly 6,000 German troops currently serving abroad by sending up to 400 soldiers to Turkey, where they would operate two Patriot missile batteries to help protect their NATO ally from a potential escalation of the civil war across the border in Syria.

“For decades, we Germans have benefited from the fact that our partners gave us the feeling of reliable security,” Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s defense minister, said during the debate last month. “Now we are in a position and have the duty, even, to make our impact felt.”

Only a handful of shivering protesters passed out fliers in front of the Brandenburg Gate opposing the deployment. The vote easily passed in the Parliament two days later.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/world/europe/germany-moves-closer-to-accepting-military-role.html?pagewanted=all

[HiPointDem]

1. same thing's happening in japan. easy to change pacifism to militarism.

[amandabeech]

2. Japan has disputes with China and Korea over islands and claims to sea areas.

The clashes with Korea have been less frequent than the ones with China.

The clashes with China have been more frequent lately, and involve areas thought to overlie oil and gas deposits.

China has claimed as its territorial waters large areas of the South China Sea which are not contiguous to its coast. Japan isn't the only protesting nation. South Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei, Indonesia and I think Singapore are all quite upset.

Very recently, a U.S. carrier, en route between Seattle and the Arabian sea, paid a port call to Cam Ran Bay in South Vietnam. That was a huge U.S. base during the Vietnam War. Current South Vietnamese officials were invited to the carrier to watch demonstration aircraft take offs and landings. The Vietnamese are looking at us as possible partners in keeping their arch-enemy China out of their territorial waters.

In sum, Japan sees a need for increased military capacity to face China. Add that to the threats from the latest Kim in North Korea, and you have a reason to be a little less pacifistic.

[HiPointDem]

3. there have always been disputes with china and korea, and russia for that matter.

japan is becoming more militaristic for the same reason germany is: change in the global balance of power. not because of some specific dispute.

[amandabeech]

4. Yes, but they did not involve oil.

Oil makes things more complicated.

Cf., the current flare up of tough talk between the U.K. and Argentina over the Falkland Island/Las Malvinas.