Retooling for War

Is Germany truly the pacifist country that the whole world has been led to believe that it is over the past 50 years? There is more than meets the eye behind the alleged change in the German national character.
 

Something’s afoot in Europe. The pr spin does not ring true with the evidence of history.

Much was made, particularly in the European press, of the pacifist stand taken by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s government against involvement in the recent Anglo-American-led campaign in Iraq. The European press hailed this self-righteous stand as proof positive of the change in historic German motives. Here was dramatic evidence that a historically warmongering nation had morphed into the world’s leading peace lover.

Had it really? Behind the front-page news of Germany thumbing its nose at the mighty U.S. lurked other news, more consistent with Germany’s past, yet largely ignored or not understood by the hacks that feed the daily stories to the popular press.

EU’s First Military Ventures

One headline, which appeared in a Pakistani newspaper, should have been plastered across the front pages of every single newspaper in the U.S., Britain and its dominions and, in particular, the tiny nation of Israel. “EU Launches First Military Venture” read the banner above a story in the Dawn of March 30. Datelined at Brussels, where the European Union is headquartered, the story led as follows:

“The European Union launches its first military operation on Monday, but this groundbreaking if modest new venture for the 15-nation economic bloc may draw scant attention because of the Iraq war.

“To the intense frustration of EU officials, the launch of Operation Concordia, taking over a 300-soldier peacekeeping mission in Macedonia from nato, has been overshadowed by the giant military action in the Gulf.

“‘In normal times, this would be front page news. Now, we’ll be lucky to get a line in the briefs column,’ one official said.”

So it was, indeed, that one of the most groundbreaking news events of the 21st century (to those who really understand current events in relation to Bible prophecy) hardly saw the light of day in the daily newspapers of Anglo-America and tiny Israel.

Why was this event so important? Simply because this European Union military force is destined to become a fighting machine superior to all others—yes, even, believe it or not—even superior to the current mind-staggering power of the United States of America!

“Although tiny in scope and limited to six months, the Macedonian mission is an important test bed for future larger and more complex peacekeeping and humanitarian operations for the 15-nation EU’s embryonic rapid reaction force” (ibid.).

From acorns come oak trees. This acorn, this “tiny in scope” mission, is but a launching pad for far larger, future “peace enforcement” missions ahead. As the Financial Times was able to at least deduce, “[C]ue bugles here—it is the EU’s debut, after lots of agonizing, in military operations and thus terribly symbolic” (March 12; emphasis mine throughout).

Knowing the prophetic destiny of this EU “debut … in military operations,” a far better way of rendering that observation would have been to describe it as “symbolically terrible”!

Though it may have appeared that this launching of the Euroforce’s first military action came after “lots of agonizing,” the EU certainly wasted no time in mounting its second military action. Within just two months of deploying troops in Macedonia, the EU underwrote its intention to mount missions anywhere in the world by its speedy reaction to a UN request to mount a peacekeeping force in Africa, catching many a pundit by surprise with the rapidity of this response.

“The European Union is preparing its second military undertaking, this time in the former Belgian colony of Congo. The deployment could occur more quickly than was at first thought. … [T]he United Nations … specifically asked the European Union to support the UN mission in Congo. … The force is to be sent by the middle of July at the latest. The EU force is likely to comprise some 2,000-3,000 soldiers. … The war in Congo is one of the greatest unreported wars in history” (Die Welt, May 28; see article, p. 14).

Military Procurement

At the same time that the EU was responding favorably to this latest request to deploy its rapid reaction force, yet another news story of tremendous significance failed to make an impact in most English-language dailies. The huge, European aeronautical industry conglomerate Airbus announced on May 27 that it had signed up “the most ambitious European military procurement program ever undertaken.”

Now that is a most significant event! But did you read of that story in your newspaper? EUbusiness.com described it as the “biggest joint venture ever in the European defense industry”—expected to create or secure 40,000 jobs in Europe, 10,500 of which will be in Germany (May 27).

“The contract was inked in Bonn, western Germany. … Airbus is owned … 80 percent by the European aerospace group eads …” (ibid.). And which country has the major shareholding in eads (European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company)? Germany, through the one-third share owned by Daimler-Chrysler!

Why is this contract such a big deal?

“Tuesday’s signing confirmed orders from the seven European nations for 180 a400m military transport planes. … Tuesday’s signing became possible after a German parliamentary commission gave the final go-ahead last week for Berlin’s order …. The a400m would be the transport backbone of Europe’s rapid reaction force, which is being created independently of nato” (ibid.).

The EU is entering the fast lane. We are about to witness a progressive change in the moribund EU economies—one of the most structurally problematic, at this time, being the German economy. This huge Airbus contract is but a forerunner of many more ambitious military procurement programs yet to be initiated by the EU.

Europe will soon add 10 more nations to its current list of 15 members. That will bring a host of industrial factories and labor under the overall direction of Brussels. The production capacity of this federal union of 25 national economies will be massive—unprecedented in all of history.

Retooling Industry

Germany is Europe’s largest industrial nation. Not only that, Germany—this “pacifist” Germany—seemingly so reluctant to go to war, viewed by the world as being a laggard when it comes to its government’s defense budget, currently exhibits, by far, the heaviest investment in defense-related industries within all of Europe. It is the major investor nation in European aeronautical and space industries. It is, by far, the largest investor in Europe’s merchant and military naval shipbuilding and port infrastructure (see article, p. 19). A slew of German industrial conglomerates such as Bayer (formerly ig Farben), Daimler-Chrysler, Rheinmetall, Thyssen, Zeiss, Vodafone, bmw, Dornier, Babcock—most being household names hearkening back to the early days of German industrial development—are deeply enmeshed in cross-sharing deals that dominate the defense industries in Europe.

Apart from this, it would bear well for us to remember that the non-defense related industrial capacity of Germany, which is, in itself, huge by world standards, showed an all-too-ready capacity in the 1930s and ’40s to retool from production for domestic consumption to output for military needs, when the occasion presented itself. Back in the 1930s, Hitler took hold of an ailing German economy and a demoralized electorate and within six years built it into an industrial giant, producing the world’s greatest, most highly mechanized and sophisticated war machine.

That was in the days before the microchip! Before instantaneous digital communications! Before man’s penetration of outer space!

General Staff

One thing Hitler did have, which made a tremendous difference and played a most influential role in bringing his dream of world conquest to a prospect of reality, was the German General Staff.

Following World War i, Germany was barred by the Treaty of Versailles from possessing a standing army—but it cleverly kept the German officer cadre intact, its General Staff, while demobilizing its military forces. Most crucial to raising an effective military force is to first have in place an effective command-and-control structure. That is the principal reason why Hitler was able to retool German industry for war and raise a standing army of millions within just six years of taking on the German chancellorship.

For 57 years, following World War ii, Germany had no General Staff in place. It was simply banned forever by the victorious Allies following the war. At that time in history, our Anglo-American leaders recognized only too clearly the grave danger that the continuing existence of the German General Staff would pose to world order and world peace.

How short is our memory! How naive are our present-day leaders! Last year the German government brought back into existence that which a more enlightened Anglo-American leadership banned forever, for all time: the German General Staff! Now it has a new name: the Command Staff of the Armed Forces.

A year later, the EU, a Franco-German idea from its inception, mounted the first military venture by its new rapid reaction (read blitzkrieg) force, under Franco-German leadership!

A multinational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan is presently under German leadership. The German navy is deployed in the Horn of Africa. The EU rapid reaction force is undertaking its second mission in two months. Meanwhile, in Bonn, the most significant defense-related contract in Europe’s history has just been signed. This will secure business for a division of a massive aerospace and defense conglomerate in which Germany owns the major share, and will supply Germany with the largest order among all client nations who are signatories to this deal!

When will we wake up?

You need to see where this “peaceful” Germany, under the cloak of the European Union, is really leading this world! You can know the outcome of this beginning revival of German militarism, in advance of the event!

“God is going to bring Germany and the Holy Roman Empire down after that ancient war machine has brought the world down. But then God raises it all back up again—His way—with His government, His law, and His righteousness. The Germans are an exceptionally talented people who are going to be a very great people in the World Tomorrow. God just needs to channel that talent in the right direction. Then they will serve God with the same zeal they have unknowingly served Satan all these years. All will be to the glory of God the Father” (Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, p. 35).