Two days ago an online petition to the Bundestag, the German parliament, was published. Its goal? To add to the German constitution an article exactly like Article 5 of the constitution of Ecuador (2008) which reads:
"Ecuador is a territory of peace. The establishment of foreign military bases or foreign facilities for military purposes shall not be allowed. It is forbidden to transfer national military bases to foreign armed or security forces."
In the petition the word "Ecuador" is, quite simply, replaced with the word "Germany".
At present, Germany has more American foreign bases than any other country in the world (1) and, to date there has never been a "No-Bases" movement in Germany. However, the example of Ecuador shows us that change is possible.
According to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany every person - citizen or foreigner - has the right, individually or jointly with others, to address written requests to the legislature. By adding your signature and further spreading the petition, your support could prove decisive.
Please show your concern and support by signing the petition here:
The goal is worth our effort. Germany's unpleasant situation became perfectly clear in a "Foreign Policy" article in April 2011: "African leaders and populations were so fearful of the neocolonial militarization of U.S. Africa policy that the Pentagon could not find a willing regional host for Africom and instead has had to locate the command's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany." (2)
(1) Pentagon's Base Structure Report 2010 (www.acq.osd.mil/ie/download/bsr/BSR2010Baseline.pdf): "The majority of the foreign sites are located in Germany (218 sites), Japan (115 sites), and South Korea (86 sites)."