Who's serious about defense and who's not?

Here's a strange incident. Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters wrote an opinion piece in the NY Post defending the reduction of US forces in Germany. I can't get to the piece on line, but he was attacking Democratic critics of the reduction. He was also hard on the Germans. You can read about his opinion pieced and the German Army's reaction here.

The German military has pulled out of the U.S. Army's annual Land Combat Expo, protesting an opinion piece written by a controversial retired U.S. officer slated to be a guest speaker at next week's event.

As a civilian, I wonder if this is significant. What exactly is this Land Combat Expo?

Billed as the Army's premier professional development symposium for troops in Europe, the Land Combat Expo is slated to run Tuesday through Sept. 30. Much of it will center on the Army's achievements through the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We are displaying for our allies and enemies alike what a great democracy, using the on-the-ground presence of our units, supported by families and the backing of the American people, can achieve in defense of liberty", Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, wrote encouraging that troops attend the symposium.

It seems like this is partially a public relations event for the US Army and partially and educational conference for the Europeans. After all, their militaries don't have much combat experience, so there are, presumably, things they can learn from the US military.

And they choose not to attend because of an opinion piece in an American newspaper. Of course, it is their right not to attend, but I'm with Peters on this one:

"It's perfectly all right for the Germans to call President Bush a Nazi, it's perfectly all right for the Germans to criticize everything about America, to lionize ["Fahrenheit 911" director] Michael Moore and treat our soldiers as second-class human beings... but they want to try and censor the American media."

"I think the fact that they're pulling out is the best imaginable indicator of how weak our alliance is, how meaningless Germany's contribution is," said Peters. "If they pull out because they can't stand one 800-word opinion piece in an American newspaper, how could we possibly expect them to stand by us in a violent crisis?"

I don't think it's censorship. It's just silly and unserious. Getting worked up over hurt feelings is the business of diplomats. If the Germans were serious about improving their military to the point were they could compete with us, or even just protect themselves, they wouldn't be pitching a hissy fit over something so insignificant.

But then I'm just an ignorant civilian and am open to enlightenment.

(via Davids Medienkritik)