Is Germany a Reliable American Ally? Nein.
wsj.com
wsj.com
But the rest of the analysis seems wrong. For example, it doesn't realise how important Nord Stream is for the Russian state finances. Russia is about to learn a lesson many EU countries have learned. Germany willingly pays (for gas or whatever). And later, the decisions made are ones acceptable to Germany.
Which is interesting because despite the Red-Green "opposition" to the 2003 invasion of Iraq - they gave a full green light to the U.S. to uses its air bases in their country (most principally the EUCOM headquarters in Stuttgart) to conduct all manor of offensive operations in the course of that overtly aggressive and basically criminal undertaking.
On top of a long history of selling arms to any number of despotic regimes (most notably Egypt, Qaddafi's Libya), or regimes slightly less despotic but engaged in long-term offensive operations against their own citizenry (Turkey), sometimes in violation of its own regulations against such transfers.
Which makes its newly discovered vigilance and sense of "principle" in regard to transfers to Ukraine seem quite suspect.
Merkel has been seen this cheerful lady, but she blocked EU actions against Poland for years and I lost all respect to her due to this.
Germans aren't blowing up American service members. The legitimate government of Germany maintains an invitation to those forces. And there is clear and present strategic American interest to the role those forces serve.
None of those applied to Afghanistan. Doesn't mean the pull-out was correct, just that Germany's situation is too different for comparison.