GERMANY OUT OF EUROPE? GEREXIT!

GEREXIT GERMANY DOES NOT BELONG IN EU?

The long simmering and ugly Greek Crisis had brought many changes in perceptions. As the crisis unfolded over the last few months this author has revised his concept of the German Republic. Perhaps it is Germany who should leave the Euro? From evidences of their behavior in this crisis, it appears at least to this observer, that the German character (at least of some of its top leaders) has not altered much since the mid-20th century. The beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan and the massive post WW II loans have now become the economic heavyweight on the continent...a place they continue to attempt to dominate. Not with brutal military might this time, but with their economic clout. In these last few weeks we have seen their lack of compassion for the suffering of their European cohabitants in Greece. They have expressed disdain for the southern Europeans. The double edged sword of their social structure and mental rigidity, great for paying their taxes, but it also inhibits them from making more creative and flexible decisions which in certain situations might alleviate pain and suffering and likely even help solve problems of Europe such as the economic crisis in Greece . Even in the face of economic facts supported by the IMF asserting that austerity imposed on Greece would not work, they could not alter from their original plan or their rote thinking. One could not help imagining that perhaps it was not GREXIT that was needed to save Europe..but perhaps what was needed to return Europe to its progressive and humane ideals was GEREXIT! Can it be that it is Germany which does not belong in the Europe of our modern day?

The behavior of German overlords pushing around suffering Greeks, showing no empathy, increasing the pain of innocent children and the elderly, and deaf to words of compassion and reason from more moderate sources, was too much like the black and white news clips from Movietone News seen in theaters of the War era. It was particularly hard to watch for someone who remembers the ugly history of the Second World War.

Then too there is the specter of the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who is confined to a wheelchair and who resembles too closely for comfort the character "Dr. Strangelove" (played by Peter Sellers) an ex Nazi wheel-chair-bound scientist in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece film of that name. Schaeuble, who was one of the few in Europe who supported President George Bush's Iraq War, also stands out with the far-right fringe of our own GOP in actually DEFENDING the concept of maintaining Guantanamo as an exlegio prison camp for terrorists. At home he is known as the "law and order" minister. His far right conservative positions makes it easy to tag him as Germany's Dr. Strangelove. All he needs is that movie character's sunglasses, trick hand and a glove to make the uncomfortable transition complete.

Schaeuble who is claimed to be Madam Prime Minister Angela Merkel's secret alter ego, made it apparent that he was in favor of a "Grexit" even before the greek elections which brought to power the so called "far left" Syriza government. Schaeuble and Merkel apparently believed they could punish the Greeks so severely that they would exit the Euro. Grexit was a means to cow the other southern Euro states into submission to German "law and order". US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testified to that effect, and he also claimed that during the crisis negotiations Schaeuble had not bargained in good faith with the Greeks. His testimony indicated that when the Greek negotiators agreed to one of his tough austerity proposals, at the very next meeting, he would simply move the goal posts further away and insist on even higher VAT taxes, or more cuts in pensions. He toyed with the desperate Greeks like a cat with a trapped mouse.

The economic results of Schaeuble and Merkel's economic ministrations and impositions on Greece were a disaster. As a result of the austerity program insisted on by the Germans as a condition for further loans, the Greek economy contracted by 25%, to war time levels, more than a quarter of the adult work force were unemployed and half of the youth population were out of work. Tens of thousands of hungry people flooded soup kitchens in Athens daily. It was apparent to any and all professional economists that no level of austerity was going to resurrect the moribund Greek economy. The IMF agreed that austerity was not working and that the only solution was massive debt relief or debt restructuring. But even after the referendum and the bank closings and the capitulation of PM Alexis Tsipras, Merkel and Schaeuble continued on their rigid course of even more harsh austerity programs which were so severe as to permit some to describe Greece as now not an independent state but a virtual German colony. So it is that the violent history of German invasion of Greece in WWII replays itself again.

Will the other states of the Union fall to German domination. Do we need a Gerexit?