> "How could the NSA not want to listen in on the person rated by Forbes as the second most powerful person in the world after President Obama?”
He can rest assured that the USA never saw France as no2 in anything, except maybe gastronomy.
When Europe was reshaped at the end of WW2, De Gaul was not present on the table. It was Roosevelt, Churchil and Stalin who got the spoils.
I believe the only reason France enjoyed a sort of leadership in Europe was because Germany historically was seen as too dangerous to cut loose and the UK never felt part of Europe.
The US via Marshall's plan and the global money recycling scheme (Bretton Woods) made of a broken Germany a surplus country and the European powerhouse we all know and love today. Of course German culture (protestantism) had a lot to do with it. So, indirectly the US put Germany on a the road to become the most powerful country in Europe in the long run anyway.
> So, indirectly the US put Germany on a the road to become the most powerful country in Europe
i'm no geopolitical or history expert (i just like to travel and observe) but i don't think it was indirect at all. germany (and central europe in general) has shown that unless it is powerful, rich and well-integrated with the rest of the world, it will lead to very, very bad things. if you've ever been to germany and talked with normal people, they are absolutely convinced that their way is the best. this is something to be harnessed and directed, not rejected.
the post-war plan was to ensure that happened, on our terms. the soviets nearly fucked it all up, but thankfully we won that war also. we drive around in german cars, the whole of europe borrows their money, we eat their food, drink their beer, buy their overpriced coffee grinders and other assorted bauhaus-influenced home goods, and that makes everybody happy. we're all nice and fat and contented with our shiny and delicious german stuff and stuff financed by german cash, and they don't feel the need to forcibly take over the world to shove it down our throats (or worse). it's a fantastic arrangement that's worked out swimmingly so far.
fwiw, the refugee crisis and mass immigration from the middle east into this region concerns me.
p.s. the same goes for japan too, except their border policy is basically completely racist (even though in my experience japanese people are extremely friendly and open-minded -- it's a very strange and unique dichotomy) so they'll just invent robots to do the work that the non-existant immigrants would have done. german industrial robots are no slouch but so far the domestic/service situation is still handled by people, as far as i can tell. in japan they're trying to automate away all that inconvenient people-to-people stuff.
While Secretary General [of NATO], Ismay is also credited as having been the first person to say that the purpose of the alliance was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down," a saying that has since become a common way to quickly describe the alliance.
> He can rest assured that the USA never saw France as no2 in anything, except maybe gastronomy.
I think in your haste to put down France you misread the quote which in fact states what you say later on in your response. Here's the quote again:
> "Chancellor Merkel is important. If the NSA was not surveying her communications, it was only because it was unable to do so," "How could the NSA not want to listen in on the person rated by Forbes as the second most powerful person in the world after President Obama?”
It's quite clear to me that they're referring to Merkel and her communication being spied upon, not the French President.
He can rest assured that the USA never saw France as no2 in anything, except maybe gastronomy.
When Europe was reshaped at the end of WW2, De Gaul was not present on the table. It was Roosevelt, Churchil and Stalin who got the spoils.
I believe the only reason France enjoyed a sort of leadership in Europe was because Germany historically was seen as too dangerous to cut loose and the UK never felt part of Europe.
The US via Marshall's plan and the global money recycling scheme (Bretton Woods) made of a broken Germany a surplus country and the European powerhouse we all know and love today. Of course German culture (protestantism) had a lot to do with it. So, indirectly the US put Germany on a the road to become the most powerful country in Europe in the long run anyway.