TRUMP'S TROOP PULL-OUT FROM GERMANY IS PUNISHMENT FOR NORD STREAM 2 PIPELINE PROJECT

Vince Dhimos answered a question at Quora.
 
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-USA-withdrawing-1-3rd-of-the-US-troops-from-Germany-Has-American-imperialism-started-to-collapse-from-the-day-Snowden-exposed-it/answer/Vince-Dhimos
 
Why is the USA withdrawing 1/3rd of the US troops from Germany? Has American imperialism started to collapse from the day Snowden exposed it?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/remove-troops-germany-200605191605081.html
 
US imperialism is like a wounded bull that will continue to do horrendous harm and injury to anyone who refuses to bow before it, even its allies, before it finally gasps its last.
 
While the official reason given for the pull-out is that Germany has not paid “its fair share” of NATO contributions, the real bone of contention is that Germany insists on continuing its cooperation with the Nord Stream 2 project. Trump is “punishing” Germany by pulling out many of the troops (though many Germans are relieved to see the US troops go). Merkel’s refusal to participate in the US-hosted G7 was a corollary reason.
 
Germany has been a US ally in the past but Trump now sees it as an enemy because it wants to buy Russian gas and has cooperated with Russia in laying the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany. There is nothing illegal or irregular about this deal, though US politicians and msm would like you to believe there is something sinister about it. It is purely a business transaction and is extremely important because it implies cheaper energy to Europe for many years to come. Without this cheap gas it is unlikely that Germany could retain its position as the world’s second largest exporter after China.
 
But Trump, the old scammer, is hell bent on selling Europe US LNG, which is about 40% more expensive than Russian gas and not a reliable source. It requires fracking, which is environmentally harmful and risks being banned, and US gas companies are going bankrupt right and left because the fracking process is too costly and the wells are too short-lived. The investors were sold – by Trump, who else? –that producing this gas would make America the no. 1 energy producer in the world. He didn’t mention that it would bankrupt the investors.
 
So Trump, who has always relied on dirty tricks to get his way, concocted the cock-and-bull story that buying gas from Russia would somehow threaten Europe’s “energy security” because Russia could somehow use this business relationship to pressure Europe (as if the US were not the main source of political pressure on Europe!). German officials quickly responded alleging, quite correctly, that the US is using the “energy security” excuse as a red herring to sell its gas to Europe. Of course, almost the entire Congress and Senate went right along with the crooked scheme, imposing sanctions on the companies that were involved in Nord Stream 2. The pipe laying company, Dutch-Swiss joint venture Allseas, was forced to quit the project, costing this company millions in lost revenues. Most Americans once thought of free competition as a sacred principle, but in recent years that principle has fallen by the wayside and now any sleazy trick to eliminate competition will do – like pretending China deliberately unleashed a virus on the world, for example, just to have an excuse to suppress that country’s competition. This is the Trump era. The downside is that the new economic principle of prohibiting competition is threatening the world economy. And, of course, the sleaze is costing the US allies and is not working very well as a means of killing competition.
 
For those enlightened few, including residents of both the US and Germany, who understand that US “defence” including NATO, is a scam,  this move on Trump’s part is a boon.
 
I have explained the US “defence” scam here (it is not defence at all, but 100% offense): http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/military-affairs/march-26th-2018
 
I have written previously on the NATO scam: http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/news--analysis/eurexit-from-nato-needed
 
I have shown that Russia is not the aggressor it is depicted as in the US-indoctrinated West: http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/military-affairs/the-real-aggressor-is-not-russia-its-the-us