The designated US ambassador in Berlin is known in the USA as an expert in military planning. In recent days, older statements from TV and radio interviews have caused an uproar in the media surrounding the former US army officer.
More than 15 years have passed since Douglas Macgregor retired from the US military with the rank of colonel. Nevertheless, the former US army officer never thought for a second in his life about stepping down. He published books on military strategy, founded a consultancy firm and was even active on YouTube for a time. He is now best known as a commentator on the conservative news channel “Fox News”, where he has repeatedly come out as a supporter of Donald Trump’s policies. Macgregor is now set to become his country’s new ambassador to Germany, succeeding Richard Grenell. In 2019, the West Point military academy graduate was considered a possible candidate for the post of National Security Advisor. Macgregor, who is also an expert on German military history, has been under discussion as a candidate for the ambassador’s job for some time. During his career in the US military, Macgregor supported the team of US special representatives for the Balkans in peace talks. He was also head of planning for the commander-in-chief of the NATO forces in the Kosovo war. He was also one of the fiercest critics of the US military strategy in Iraq and the Afghanistan mission.
“Colonel Douglas Macgregor is a decorated war veteran, author and advisor,” the White House stated, repeatedly emphasizing that Macgregor is known primarily as an “expert in force planning”. In recent days, however, xenophobic statements by the former US army officer have come to light, causing media discussions. In a radio interview in 2016, he is reported to have said that immigrants come to Germany “to profit, to consume and to settle in other people’s countries, with the aim of eventually turning Europe into an Islamic state”. Trump’s new man in Berlin also believes that the Third Reich played a decisive role in the defense of the West. His appointment as ambassador still has to be approved by the Senate, the German newspaper “Die Welt” comments more than critically on the expected appointment: “If Macgregor learns nothing, Germany will have to deal with a pyrotechnical heckler who will set off a rocket or two. After all, in Berlin he would be an excellent hero of the meagerness that his master in the White House also stands for. After almost four years in office, the allies know: Donald Trump likes to give free rein to his primitiveness. Worse still, he is destroying the American alliance system as we have known it since Harry S. Truman. It is only logical that Trump is sending Macgregor, a willing executor of this destructive rage, to Berlin, the United States’ most important ally in Europe.”
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