German army in new racism row

[IChing]

Source: AP

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- A video showing a German army instructor telling one of his soldiers to envision African-Americans in the Bronx while firing his machine gun was broadcast Saturday on national television.

The video, coming after scandals involving photos of German soldiers posing with skulls in Afghanistan and the abuse of recruits by instructors, seemed likely to raise more questions about training practices in Germany's conscript army.

"We can no longer talk about an isolated case," said Lt. Juergen Rose of the Darmstaedter Signal, a group of current and former army officers and sergeants who independently review military procedures.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/14/germany.race.ap/index.html

[ThomCat]

1. I'm stunned by this.

What the fuck makes them want to envision killing black people in the Bronx? :wtf:

What would make any instructor think that soldiers would be more willing to shoot at black people in the Bronx than at anyone else? What kind of motivation did he think he was giving these soldiers. x(

That is just totally irrational.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I had the same reaction. It is just bizarre.

:wtf:

[krispos42]

9. Old Hitler training manuals

What do you think they would have done if they had conquered Europe? Waited a generation, rebuit, and attacked us in the early '60s. With Japan on one side and the Greater German Reich on the other, we might well have fallen.

And then the concentration camps. Blacks in this country would have been exterminated with the same thoroughness as Jews. Death camps in Upstate New York, northern Illinois, all over the Deep South. Millions of blacks gassed to death, then their corpses dragged by black work gangs to the incinerator. A thousand a day per camp. Two thousand a day per camp. More.

And, of course, all the Jews that fled Europe, as well as homosexuals and gypsies and whatever else was deemed subhuman.

[Bacchus39]

21. stunned by racism in Germany??

watch the History Channel once in a while, all Hitler all the time.

[wake.up.america]

3. Pretty stupid, I must say.. Not all Germans are like that.

[classysassy]

4. Why am I not surprised?

Times marches on,but somethings never change.

[SpikeTss]

5. No surprises

Some things really never change.

[Checkstub]

13. How does your post relate to anything German?

That's American stuff.

[The Stranger]

23. Strike a nerve, eh?

[Ignacio Upton]

6. "Seig Heil! Kill them n*****ers!"

What a douchebag!:grr:

[WindRavenX]

7. WTF?

Just...wtf?

[emilyg]

8. ah

those fun loving germans

[Zandor]

10. Racist German Army Clip Targets N.Y. Blacks

Source: ABC

A televised cell phone video clip of a German army instructor ordering a solder to envision African Americans from New York's Bronx borough as he fires a machine gun and yells obscenities during a military training session is igniting outrage in Europe and America.

"You are in the Bronx," says the instructor. "Three African-Americans … are insulting your mother in the worst ways."

A laugh can be heard on the recording.

The instructor adds, "Before each shot, I want to hear a 'motherf——-.'"...





Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/International/story?id=3043733&page=1

[Xipe Totec]

11. I truly hope we don't use this clip

by some bigoted racist assholes, as an excuse to bash all Germans as latent Nazis.

Because this trend toward guilt by association is making me really uncomfortable.

[wake.up.america]

12. Einverstanden!

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Xipe Totec]

15. Q.E.D.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tom_paine]

16. If Germany goes BushPutinist, the world will tremble

Let us pray they NEVER get their own Bushler. They've already had theirs.

[cigsandcoffee]

17. It's probably from stuff they watched on TV and the movies

I doubt it's as sinister as it appears to us. Bad taste? To say the least. But it's more Hollywood than hate speech, I'd wager.

[newsjunki]

18. ...

I'm a conservative, but sometimes the conservatives sicken me when they excuse stuff like this. Of course this will all be made about sharpton as to deflect the racist comments. I don't like Sharpton the race peddler, but I also don't like that every time a white person uses racial epithet, the first thing you here from conservatives mouths is that they aren't racist. Whatever....

[cigsandcoffee]

19. There is so much odd tangent in your post, that it's hard to break down.

For one thing, I'm not excusing the soldier in question. Nor have I mentioned Al Sharpton anywhere.

What I am attempting to explain is the mindset of a non-American ESL using Hollywood imagery in a foreign country. Things can get lost, amplified, or mixed up in translation.

Is the guy a racist? Sure, without question. Is the German military something akin to the KKK? I doubt it.

[Eugene]

22. German Ministry Condemns Racial Video

Source: Associated Press

German Ministry Condemns Racial Video

Monday April 16, 2007 5:31 PM

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER

Associated Press Writer

BERLIN (AP) - The Defense Ministry said Monday an army instructor's
order to a soldier to imagine being accosted by blacks in New York's
Bronx borough while firing a machine gun was “absolutely unacceptable.”

A video of the incident, which the army said it is investigating, aired
on German television Saturday and prompted calls for an apology by the
Bronx borough president.

Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe condemned the episode, but
said he believed it was an isolated case.

“This behavior is absolutely unacceptable and contradicts the training
standards of the German army,” he said at a news conference.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6562031,00.html

[mcscajun]

24. The German government and the German army are both taking this very seriously.

The instructor was let go under a provision that permits immediate separation of personnel who violate service obligations, or whose continued service would harm the order or reputation of the military, a ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Germany-Army-Video.html

"The Bundeswehr (German army) has dismissed him," a Defence Ministry spokesman said. He said the non-commissioned officer, whose name is being withheld, was stripped of his rank and pay.

The ministry is still investigating a second soldier who filmed the training scenes. It was unclear how long this investigation would take, the spokesman said.

http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Germany/10118890.html

German Army training video making the rounds on the Web and outraging citizens from the Bronx and Berlin alike.

Leaked army training videos are nothing new, but it’s probably safe to say this is the first one to receive a direct rebuke from the Bronx borough president (”Clearly these folks don’t know anything about African-Americans or the Bronx”).

http://screens.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/the-far-western-front/

Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said Monday in Berlin the July 2006 incident was "absolutely unacceptable" and contradicted the armed forces' educational standards and ethics.

In New York, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also condemned the video on Monday.

Raabe said military authorities had known of the video since January. Reports about it appeared in the media Friday.

http://jurnalo.com/jurnalo/storyPage.do?story_id=29680

[newsjunki]

25. let go??

wow, i'm shocked!

[Kellanved]

26. The criminal case hasn't even started.

This is just about him no longer being a instructor.

[Kellanved]

27. reading a little much into it?

I mean a drill instructor going racist isn't exactly the rarest story about practically any military organization on this planet. Sure, he should get thrown out, punished and an excuse is in order, but the comments are a little weird to read, I have to admit. Especially with far more comment-worthy stories (like this: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,477451,00.html ) around.

[eagler]

29. Things are what they are .

n/t

[eagler]

28. Getting to be a world wide epidemic - in Russia too

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3388975,00.html