Originally Posted by
SealLion
And so who pays??
The taxpayer in those countries.
Billions of dollars.
But somehow, it's a little bit different for Germany I think. Germany is pretty much an economic powerhouse in Europe, so no doubt, in some way Germany removed itself from any potential impoverishment that is normally imposed upon a losing side.
well, its always the taxpayers, as they eventually carry the tax burden as proposed/ordered by the government, regardless of its validity or intentions
its quite remarkable how germany succeeded in achieving a rather decent economic status & overall stability despite of the reparations yearly burden, later on even the reuniting with east germany didn't hurt their stability much - i have a feeling they could have gone much further if they weren't held down with long lasting reparations, and in addition to that, today germany even carries the largest part of the EU budget
Code:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_European_Union#State_by_state_analysis
see these enormous reparations amounts (afaik not mentioned in wikipedia):
Compensation paid by the Federal Republic of Germany to victims of the Nazi regime € bn
Final Federal Compensation Law 44.54
Retrospective payments for hardship cases 2.78
Compensation for stolen property 2.02
Payments made to the state of Israel 1.53
Special funds of Germany's federal states for individual cases 1.53
Payments made to other countries 1.46
Miscellaneous payments 6.80
The "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" Foundation (payments to former forced laborers) 2.56
TOTAL 63.22 € bn
Source: German Finance Ministry,
2005 figures
Code:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,515984,00.html
Originally Posted by
SealLion
Because normally when there is some kind of war reparations that is imposed upon a losing side, impoverishment usually occurs.
that the presence of foreign troops may have spurred on an economic climb for Germany out of any potential impoverishment, yes??
imo, after the war the winning side had a few plundering rounds:
- the direct one after the victory, seizing various assets, hauling (back to homeland) what they could take as loot
- taking a cut from the industry & other areas as these were recuperating, for years later, under foreign governance
- international investments & credits took their toll in ownership & interest rates, that were rather inflated in post-war times, which can last for decades
- the exaggerated reparations, even till today
so its more profitable to let the economic situation improve and take a nice piece out of it (from behind the scenes), than to let it all go to waste or towards a new revolution/war scenario
since both world wars were planned, started, steered, supported ('all' sides, many areas), and finally the end results too, by the global nwo leaders, so were the events in post-war germany - if they wanted a 3rd world war (say, instead of the cold war), they would have steered global events in that direction, simple as that - i guess the global relatively peaceful situation was a more preferred/lucrative option at that time
Originally Posted by
SealLion
Yes, it may be true that Germany at that time 'owed' something. But it doesn't owe in the sense of this continuing and constant 'guilt-trip' imposed upon that country.
IMO, there are groups in Germany and abroad ensuring this harassment, and that is how I see it: harassment via guilt-trip.
exactly, its a world precedent, the extent to what this 'guilt trip' is extended to (contrary to the democratic notion of individual responsibility for a crime), as it is unfair to 'bestow' it upon the next generations of german citizens
its interesting, though, how the less known educational indoctrination is quite widespread in germany, and the ww2 history became (even today) a sensitive, dogmatic area, whose official views (more accurately unchangeable dogmas) no german historian or otherwise, dares to officially contradict or question or even hint to it (fear of imprisonment for thought crimes? ) - its sort of a mockery of democracy, but unfortunately this is quite globally widespread and carefully covered up by the governments, as discussion on such sensitive topics are avoided or the arguments become unreasonable or primitive - logically, no democracy can expect to grow or improve when certain problems (aka hot potatoes) are showed under the carpet and/or simply penalized
the really disturbing thing about this subject is that, for years now, there has been a growing amount of evidence not only correcting but outright contradicting the official stories, yet those in charge of defining whats officially 'true' are playing dumb, holding to their dogmas like children to their favorite toys - and when one realizes how much has been hidden or distorted, it begs the question: what the hell is wrong with all these leading figures & organizations, the word corruption is an understatement in their case
Originally Posted by
SealLion
I would like to know first hand, slik if there is any opposition to these sort of demands placed upon Germany by Israel.
sure there is, the more this thing gets distant (timewise), the more troublesome it gets to justify new payments - 2007 example:
Germany Refuses to Negotiate with Israel over New Claims
Code:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,523846,00.html
and imagine when the israel president comes at the holocaust anniversary in 2010 and holds a speech (more like lecturing them) in front of the whole german parliament - how embarrassing is that? it shows the extent of official german submission to israel & the intention to perpetuate it for as long as the germans will take it (naturally, they will defend their pride saying its a symbol of worldwide suffering, but thats just an insufficient linguistic 'patch' on the sad reality):
Shimon Peres' Remarks to the Bundestag
Code:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,674407,00.html
Originally Posted by
SealLion
Immediately after the Israeli-Arab war in 1948, Israel was quite keen to survive economically.
That would be obvious.
Most countries would need to following any war.
imo they never were in a survival situation - if you look at this so called war, you will see a few unusual things about it, like, it lasted for about 1month+10days+7days (now what kind of a war is that? thats right, a joke/farce), where supposedly 3-5 countries were against one, yet these 3-5 managed to be in the offense only for a week or two against a supposedly unprepared underground resistance movement, that managed to buy whatever military equipment it needed while being in the war, whereas arabs were, what, drinking their coffee? it seems to me this war was pre-planned, staged and used to expel a large number of palestinians towards accumulation/concentration zones where they are roughly nowadays quarantined
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