Gelegen in het zuidwesten van Duitsland, vervult de Amerikaanse luchtmachtbasis Ramstein cruciale functies ten behoeve van de voortdurende oorlogvoering die veel landen heeft ontwricht. De Ramstein basis is van essentieel belang voor de aanvallen met behulp van drones en andere vormen van militaire interventie, van Pakistan en Afghanistan tot het Midden-Oosten en Afrika.
Zo luidt de inleidende tekst (in vertaling) van een petitie onder de noemer ‘Move away from nonstop war. Close the Ramstein Air Base’. Die petitie vind je hier. Achtergrondinformatie kun je lezen in de volgende artikelen:
Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept: “Germany Is the Tell-Tale Heart of America’s Drone War”
Norman Solomon, The Nation: “The Most Important U.S. Air Force Base You’ve Never Heard Of”
Der Spiegel: “Der Krieg via Ramstein”
RootsAction schrijft in haar email:
U.S. military whistleblowers will present this petition in Berlin to a German government that includes members already very much concerned about the giant U.S. Air Base at Ramstein.
Ramstein is not just any base. It is the communications center for the drone wars. It is a main entry and return point for U.S. troops in Middle Eastern wars. It is home to the Air Force component of Africom and the headquarters of the Air Force in Europe. U.S. wars depend on Ramstein, and we should shut it down.
Sahra Wagenknecht, co-chair of Germany’s Left Party, told RootsAction co-founder Norman Solomon, as quoted in his new article in The Nation, “These extrajudicial killings are war crimes, and the German government should draw the consequences and close down the air base in Ramstein…. In my view, the drone war is a form of state terrorism, which is going to produce thousands of new terrorists.”
The petition — addressed to Chancellor Merkel, President Obama, the German Bundestag, and the U.S. Congress — will be delivered in Berlin at a presentation sponsored by RootsAction. The petition will also be presented to the U.S. government in Washington.
