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A comment on Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit. Parent comment

Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by hga on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @05:01PM (#5864700)
According to Wikipedia, as of 2010 the US military has 52,440 people in Germany, and as of 2013 the German military had 188,921 active personnel and as of 2010 144,000 in their reserves.

That falls a bit short of "occupation" in my book. There has in fact been at least one technothriller based on the US military fighting its way out of Germany, based of course on the Anabasis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabasis_(Xenophon) Xenophon and 10,000 Greeks fighting their way out of the Persian Empire).

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by njharman on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @05:30PM (#5864854)
One year, 2010, is not long term. Germany had been heavily occupied (by several nations) from end of WWII until recently. Recently being last 20years or so.
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by fwenzel on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @07:34PM (#5865448)
{{citation-needed}}
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by lostlogin on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @09:18PM (#5865834)
Are you joking?
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by fwenzel on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @11:51PM (#5866448)
No. I am just seeing a difference between occupation and having troops from foreign allies stationed on one's soil. If all non-local troops are "occupation" in your book, then I guess the US are occupying South Korea also? And Italy? And Israel?
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by brilee on Wednesday June 12, 2013 @12:12AM (#5866499)
http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2008/09/why-do-koreans-compla...

http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2012/12/quick-thought-about-p...

Yes, the US are in fact occupying South Korea, and South Korea does not like it.

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by jpatokal on Wednesday June 12, 2013 @12:59AM (#5866595)
No, the US Army is "occupying" a chunk of prime real estate in Seoul, in kind of the same way that the United Nations HQ "occupies" a chunk of prime real estate in NYC. Both cause complaints from the locals, but unlike a real occupation, South Korea could tell the US (and the US could tell the UN) to GTFO any time they wanted to.
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by lostlogin on Wednesday June 12, 2013 @01:55AM (#5866745)
Now I see what you mean - I mistook the bit you wanted a citation for. Now I get it, even if your point was 100% correct, there must have been a point when the foreign troops in Germany went from occupation to (?) stationed..?
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by sgift on Wednesday June 12, 2013 @03:35AM (#5866981)
Yes, 1954/55: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_and_Paris_Conferences

"The London and Paris Conferences were two related conferences in London and Paris in September–October 1954, that decided about full sovereignty of West Germany, ending of its occupation, and its admittance to NATO."

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by 1123581321 on Wednesday June 12, 2013 @01:45AM (#5866707)
What is that book?
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by hga on Wednesday June 12, 2013 @08:59AM (#5867809)
I'm thinking of Harold Coyle's appropriately named The Ten Thousand (http://www.amazon.com/The-TEN-THOUSAND-Harold-Coyle/dp/06718...), just in case we wondered what inspired it ^_^.

The Anabasis has inspired more than a few: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabasis_(Xenophon)#Cultural_in..., and if you're read it the words "the sea, the sea!" never fail to inspire.

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by 1morepassword on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @05:17PM (#5864774)
How would you call it there were almost half a million fully armed German troops stationed in the US?

A great success for US board of tourism?

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by hga on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @05:26PM (#5864840)
"fully armed"

Right there you start going astray, a lot of them are doing logistics of one type or another, including our largest overseas military hospital, the top level hospital for serious GWoT theater injuries.

More directly, it would all depend on why they were there.

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by DasIch on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @05:46PM (#5864929)
They are nevertheless armed among other things with nuclear weapons.
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by mpyne on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @06:23PM (#5865126)
Those aren't the nukes that Germany would have to worry about.

The U.S. attacking Germany is even more paranoid than chem-trail mind control agents, I'm just throwing that in to go along with the hypothetical.

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by lostlogin on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @09:17PM (#5865831)
It doesn't take an attack for there to be problems. Accidents, leaks, contamination, poor behaviour and violence by troops etc is somewhat more likely. That and the external appearance of supporting what ever the stationed troops are up to (often related to regional/nearby wars etc).
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by stonemetal on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @05:58PM (#5864974)
I think you mean half a hundred thousand. It really depends, are they going to movies and buying local beer or are they shooting at people? What is currently happening in Germany is the first not the second.
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by Turing_Machine on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @07:14PM (#5865355)
"How would you call it there were almost half a million fully armed German troops stationed in the US?"

That would depend on whether they were there with U.S. government permission, wouldn't it?

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by pekk on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @08:11PM (#5865615)
Absolutely, as a US citizen I have no problem at all if Germans want to have a military cultural exchange program to bring some locality jobs ;)

It is not like we are in Germany to sack the villages and take slaves, or dictate policy

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by jckt on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @05:25PM (#5864826)
Oktoberfest in the South?

/j

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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by darkarmani on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @06:03PM (#5865004)
Hessians?
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Re:Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit by hga on Tuesday June 11, 2013 @07:31PM (#5865435)
As it turns out I'm reading Washington's Crossing (http://www.amazon.com/Washingtons-Crossing-Pivotal-Moments-A...) and at the point where I'm at the Hessians are not enjoying the attacks they're receiving from the locals of occupied New Jersey (plus some raids from across the Delaware). Seems their thorough plundering wasn't well received....
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