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June 26, 2005

Some gratitude. . .

Take a look at this.

The Checkpoint Charlie Monument is scheduled to be destroyed by the Berlin city government on July 4th.

President Bush should definately ask German Chancellor Schroeder about this act that one can only describe as highly insulting to free people everywhere.

Secondly, I think we should think seriously about giving a sharp rap on the nose to the German government by ending all aid programs to Germany. They can try to get the aid back from the last remaining Communist countries (yeah, right).

They certainly have a right to do whatever they want over there, but lets get real. Checkpoint Charlie was the focal point for the cold war. The monument remembers those East GERMANS who died trying to reach the west. For decades, Americans stood guard at Checkpoint Charlie, manning the front line against the communists.

I don't think I need to remind people about the Berlin Airlift, nor the fact that even though Germany as a nation went decidely batshit in the 30's and 40's and tried to take over the whole damn world, we didn't hold it against the German people and we essentially rebuilt their nation and economy. Not to mention the billions in economic aid to Germany in the 60 years since the end of World War 2.

I'm sure if there's any outrage, the German authorities will say it's just a mistake and there was no "message" to be sent by doing this on the 4th of July, but lets get real again. If this isn't a message, I don't know what is.

So I say we send a message back, end all economic assistance to Germany, until they decide to play nice. I think we might start off by ending all purchasing agreements with German firms for goods and services used by our bases in Germany. We can simply buy supplies and provisions from Poland. If they bitch, we can move our bases to Poland, who would LOVE to have our American dollars deposited in the hands of deserving Poles who would actually be greatful.

--Jason

CLARIFICATION: In response to a comment, Checkpoint Charlie is not being removed (that's already been done, the original booth is in the Allied Museum in Zehlendorf). What's being removed is the CHECKPOINT CHARLIE MONUMENT that remembers those that died trying to escape from East Germany. Here's a picture of what they are bulldozing (in case you don't go to the linked article).

Posted by JasonColeman at June 26, 2005 10:28 PM