From: Rodney Atkinson
To: Letters Telegraph
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 5:10 PM
Subject: The German idea of “peace”
Sir,
Walter Steinmaier, the GermanForeign Minister – comparing today’s nations with politics before the first world war – believes that eurosceptic parties and “nationalism” (don’t we all need lessons from a German on nationalism!!) are a threat to Europe after the supranational EU has “preserved peace”.
What utter twaddle. It was the supranational empire of Austria Hungary with its annexation of Bosnia Herzogovenia and Germany seeking its “place in the sun” which started the first world war, not free nations.
After the second world war NATO and free trade under the Common Market and the post war political split of Germany preserved the peace. As soon as Germany started to use its post unification political muscle and the Common Market was turned into the “country called Europe” the trouble started. Germany began intefering in the Balkans, free nations like Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were broken up, thousands died, a million or more were ethnically cleansed, the disastrous Euro condemned 25 million to unemployment and up to 60% youth unemployment is leading to the depopulation of the Mediterranean countries.
And that is what Herr Steinmaier calls peace! Those of us who reject nationalistic jingoism nevertheless know that only the nation states can preserve the democratic sovereignty and free trade which can bring permanent peace.
Yours etc
Rodney Atkinson (Author, Europe’s Full Circle)
Alderley
Meadowfield Road
Stocksfield
Northumberland NE43 7PZ