"Ich bin beschäftigt"

Conrad Schumann bails out of East Berlin to a better life...

In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin on June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union:

“We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Twenty years ago, I was in the Army; a 20-year old Military Policeman stationed 5,000 miles from home in Goeppingen, Germany. It was a great little city full of wonderful people, and I was lucky to be serving with some really great guys in my squad. At the time, Germany was still two separate countries, East & West, and Berlin was a divided city punctuated by a giant concrete wall.

All that was about to change…

After 28 years, nearly 5,000 escape attempts, and as many as 200 deaths, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all East Germans citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. It was one giant continual party. You could feel a palpable change in the air, and we knew the Cold War was ending and that we’d won.


Less than two months later, a massive New Year’s Eve party was held at the Wall. Nationwide, Germans partied it up while David Hasselhoff sang his hit single ”Looking for Freedom” from atop a platform, wearing a leather coat full of light bulbs and a piano-key scarf, looking for all the world like a complete douche, but the Germans loved it. I’d recently made friends with a fellow named Thomas Kaps, a former East German soldier who had defected to the west and could now safely go home and visit his mother, who didn’t even know he’d defected six months earlier. I was there in-country as a part of history. By God, as a soldier I felt proud to have been there. It was a great time to be alive.

The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990, about 3 months after I left Germany.

Last weekend former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, at the beginning of the celebrations to make the anniversary of the fall of the wall, standing together with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, said, “We Germans in our history don’t have very much to be proud of.” But he continued. “I have nothing better to be proud of than German reunification.”

On November 9, 2009, Berlin will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a "Festival of Freedom", during which over 1,000 foam domino tiles over 8 feet tall will be stacked along the former route of the wall in the city center and toppled. Mega rock band U2 played a free concert for 10,000 fans at the Brandenburg Gate on Thursday night, surrounded by a two-meter high barrier wall to obscure the view of the show by non-ticket holders. How ironic that Champion Of Freedom, almighty Bono, does a show to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall from behind a new Berlin Wall.


And notably absent from the celebrations will be Mister Freedom Himself, B-Hussein-Obama. His Obamaness has decided to snub fellow world leader Angela Merkel and not go to Berlin for the celebrations. I find this odd; he’s a total media whore and loves to make speeches. Even if his Brotherhood of the Traveling TelePrompter can’t set up his favorite screens with a 240-volt converter, I’m sure he can borrow one while over there. Obie loves to travel to foreign lands on our dime to kiss peoples’ asses, so why turn down a trip this time? Maybe it’s because he’d be celebrating freedom and the Right’s victory over socialism in the Cold War and that’s distatseful to him?

He claims that he’s too busy getting ready for an upcoming trip to Asia, and I guess he needs to study up on who to bow to and who he needs simply to apologize to. Uber Democrat JFK famously told the locals, "Ich bin ein Berliner." On the 20th anniversary of the last century's biggest triumph of freedom, Obama is telling them, "Ich bin beschäftigt" - i.e., I'm busy. Nice way to repay that crowd of up to 200,000 that came to see you in Berlin last year, Obie, you dunce.

How's that Hope & Change working out for you, Germany? Feeling lied to? Join the club, meine freunden

And like I said before, Russia's not our friend either

Did I not say a month or so ago that Russia’s government is NOT our friend?
(http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/2007/07/trust-me-comrades.html)

Maybe I’m just having 1987 flashbacks to the Cold War while reminiscing about my high school days 20 years ago, but I could swear that the news has been full of incidents of the Russian Air Force sending out probing flights of ancient Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bombers to the edges of the sovereign airspace of Iceland, within cruise missile striking distance of the US, and towards the US base on Guam, and alongside Tu-22M Backfire and Tu-160 Blackjack bombers in groups of up to eleven planes around Norwegian airspace. One of the Norwegian flights turned south towards Scotland, trailed by Norwegian F-16’s and were intercepted by British Tornado fighters in British airspace before returning to their bases.

It’s been years since the Kremlin has sent nuclear-capable bombers on such overflights, and it smacks of the sort of Cold War saber-rattling made famous by the former Soviet Union. Granted, the Bear is a decrepit old 1950’s airframe, and the Backfire dates back to the early 70’s, but the Blackjack is pretty modern, based upon our B-1B Lancer and only about 20 years old.

Speaking after Russian and Chinese forces completed major war games exercises for the first time on Russian turf, Vladimir Putin said a halt in long-range bombers' flights after the Soviet collapse had affected Russia's security as other nations had continued such missions — an oblique reference to the United States. About the flights, our best-buddy Putin stated, "I have made a decision to resume regular flights of Russian strategic aviation. We proceed from the assumption that our partners will view the resumption of flights of Russia's strategic aviation with understanding… Starting in 1992, the Russian Federation unilaterally suspended strategic aviation flights to remote areas. Regrettably, other nations haven't followed our example. That has created certain problems for Russia's security…Starting today such tours of duty would be conducted regularly and on the strategic scale. Our pilots have been grounded for too long; they are happy to start a new life." I bet. Flying an 18-hour mission over water is always more fun than being an unpaid guy on the ground making vodka from de-icing solution.

The announcement comes amid a growing chill in the U.S.-Russian relations, strained over Washington's criticism of Russia's democracy record, Moscow's strong criticism of U.S. missile defense plans in Poland and the Czech Republic, and differences over crises such as the Iraq war. Plus, rising oil prices have given Putin some extra cash with which to flex his muscles again. Russia recently planted a titanium reproduction of its flag at the North Pole and claimed the North Pole as Russian soil, test-fired a new ballistic missile supposedly capable of thwarting Washington's fledgling missile shield, and has blocked moves at the U.N. aimed at granting Kosovo formal independence from Russia's ally, Serbia.

And just this morning I read a report on the Russian military testing a new thermobaric bomb based upon the American MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs.) They are calling theirs the Dad of all Bombs, and tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability, according to Colonel-General Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, speaking on Russian Channel One television. Thermobaric weapons explode in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast, producing a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and sending a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature. Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it's four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn't identify. While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon's blast radius is 990 feet, twice as big as that of the U.S. design, the report said.

Feel that cool breeze coming in from the Cold War memory banks? And don't forget that they were recently testing out a new ballistic missile system that supposedly renders our proposed Euro-based missile shield obsolete before we can even build it.

Once again, kids…the Mojo Man is on top of things. Now you know, and as GI Joe said, knowing is half the battle……