Monday, August 25, 2008

German 'Der Spiegel' interviews Gerhard Schroder


Merkel and Schroder






Former German Chancelor Gerhard Schroder is interviewed here by 'Der Spiegel'. And aside from some good points that he makes that not too many have made, even in the European media, I can somehow not help but think and wonder if he would've have been this honest if he was the current Chancelor. Merkel changed her tune in regards to Georgia. But anyhow.. excerpt time;

SPIEGEL: Mr. Schröder, who is at fault for the Caucasus war?

Gerhard Schröder: The hostilities undoubtedly have their historic causes, as well, and the conflict has had several historic precursors. But the moment that triggered the current armed hostilities was the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia. This should not be glossed over.


snip

SPIEGEL: Do you believe that the American military advisors stationed in Tbilisi encouraged Georgia to launch its attack?

Schröder: I wouldn't go that far. But everyone knows that these US military advisors in Georgia exist -- a deployment that I've never considered particularly intelligent. And it would have been strange if these experts had not had any information. Either they were extremely unprofessional or they were truly fooled, which is hard to imagine.


Read the rest

and how about this scathing Der Spiegel opinion piece re. John McCain's bright (as in, not particularly) bright idea of league of nations and a sub opinion piece re. unipolarity and multi-polarity;

Excerpt:

The world ceased to be a unipolar place when the Iraq war began. When the neocons used the word unipolarity, they were referring to the idea that the world's sole superpower, thanks to its military superiority, could assume that it was entitled to the role of global cop, and that the world must bend to its will, whether it wanted to or not.

Now a new technical term has come into circulation: multipolarity. It means that a number of powers can do as they please, without punishment, and no one can do much about it. China can do as it pleases with Tibet, the Uyghurs and its dissidents, and it can buy its energy where it pleases. India can sign a nuclear treaty with the United States, and can then vacillate between choosing to ditch the agreement and keep it in place. Iran can decide to become a nuclear power and then wait to see what happens, to see whether Israel and the United States, for example, will issue empty threats of air strikes while Russia and China obstruct the superpower in the UN Security Council whenever it calls for effective resolutions.

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9 Comments:

Blogger Mariamariacuchita said...

Very interesting.

Schröder: I wouldn't go that far. But everyone knows that these US military advisors in Georgia exist -- a deployment that I've never considered particularly intelligent.

No, not particularly.

However, as you say, the unipolarity is waning in light of the usurpation of power and status of newly growing third world powers. And I think India is not far behind China.

Great post, Ingrid.

8:51 PM  
Blogger susan said...

Where did the great statesmen go? Thanks for an excellent post.

9:31 PM  
Blogger D.K. Raed said...

Ingrid, I apologize AGAIN for being so scarce lately. Just more blah-blah-blah, but can you forgive me? You are doing a wonderful job here with the whole Russia-Georgia debacle. In reading Schroeder's remarks, I'm once again struck by the extreme damage done not just to the U.S. but the whole world by the course the neocons laid out in PNAC for the Bush-puppet to implement. Why is it so hard to convince Americans of what the rest of the world can so easily see?

On Sunday, I caught a CNN Fareed Zakaria GPS special interview with Bernard Henri-Levy and some German Journalist from Die Zeit. What an eye-opener. BHL tore apart the whole neocon philosophy & was practically begging us to make sure McCain is defeated. The German guy (forgot his name) was much more reticent; he even repeated the same US BS about Obama elitism. Still, to see ourselves as others see us was quite a departure from the usual Sunday CNN fare.

2:16 AM  
Blogger Ingrid said...

Maria, day two of your conference, I hope it's productive! the multi polarity is not a good thing either but you know..I've been re-reading one of my linked global research articles more closely and boy, is it ever depressing. It kind of confirms what I suspected re. Schroder..I printed out the whole article (21 pages) so I need to re-read and digest some more..

Susan..great statesman..well, the article I'm re-reading right now would debate there never was one and if you follow the Uncommon Sense button (site about the constitution that I among others write for, Border Explorer has a good article on JFK's assassination.. that is what will happen to anyone who will aim to be 'great'.. (you can imagine where those thoughts lead up to.. knock on wood knock on wood!!)
DK..are you kidding me? No need to apologize, ever! It's one of those come and go kinda deals as you like me have a life and for sure are like me and not always interested in politics all the time either. So really, no more apologizing [s]
Wow..Good thing for Bernard to come out and say that and the journalist well, I was surprised to not see more of an outroar about this in the European media and , repeating myself once again.. the global research article I'm reading, explains a lot. If you'd like to read it, I suggest printing it out so you can read a bit, digest, continue or put it aside for a while. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6423

check it out..

alrightie, got my car a new battery, cleaned and vacuumed and washed the inside of it at home..chilled a bit, visited with a neighbour for a short while and now I'm off to do other errands..

hoozah..no kiddies at home!

Ingrid

11:40 AM  
Blogger jmsjoin said...

Schroder is partially right! Like in America you never hear the truth until a politician gets out of office. Sure Georgia instigated it because like the others over there they are under the false impression we will help them.
Brother sent me the link and I used it a few times and can dig it up if you want it but that was our equipment all right but the training was done by Israeli's.
You have to remember too that Bush was the instigator here too and this too was all about the oil and energy. The pipeline in Georgia was built to cut Russia out of the deal. Listening to Russia today this too is just starting!

12:14 PM  
Blogger jmsjoin said...

About Israel's involvement Here is a link that will surprise you!

12:28 PM  
Blogger Ingrid said...

Jim, the debkafile is one of the (many!) links I had to show that Israel was involved as well. Don't ask me which post..I'd have to go back and look but yep, we found the same one! It's nice to find some alternative sources from the Israeli end..
btw.. I am still going to write to you one of these days this week on something that's been on my mind and as I was driving home I 'added' some more stuff hehe. The kinds of things that will pop in your head when you're doing routine matters..
at any rate..I just came back as well from the library with two books; rising powers, shrinking planet and gusher of lies, the dangerous delusions of 'energy independence'..

happy reading to me! [g]

Ingrid

12:56 PM  
Blogger jmsjoin said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

2:13 PM  
Blogger jmsjoin said...

Ingrid
That was me!
Bells on my toes! It's funny but that wasn't the link I wanted but it does the job as you say. I was digging too! I meant to save them but I guess I didn't! I have to laugh! The books you got sound like a list of my own subjects! Take care!

2:17 PM  

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