Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   The Grasshopper and the Ants Date:   9/23/2013 1:54:35 PM

In 1972, as a sergeant, I was assigned to G5 for V Corps Artillery (Darmstadt, Ich kann Deutsch sprechen.)

We made occasional visits to our “allies”, the French (they had kicked NATO out of France but still remained associated therewith… somehow… I think. You know the French.)  On crossing into France, I noticed how dull and bedraggled it looked.  Further into France, I began to see bombed out buildings from WWII still standing… more than twenty five years after the war.

The French do not care a whole lot for the Germans (with some good history behind such mistrust). Though, like the French the Germans are VERY liberal socially… the Germans are extremely conservative industrially and economically.  Germany, the economic mainstay of the European Union is a highly productive and efficient country. Now the rest of the EU is envious… not a far state from contempt.

Now that the Euro is in trouble… well, you know Aesop’s fable of the Grasshopper and the Ants.