Assessment of 'We Can Do It'

ARD (German public TV, Channel One), has gone to a news piece series to chat on the success/failure of 'We Can Do It'....the German slogan for the open door policy for migrants, immigrants, and asylum.  This particular piece that I embedded, is 5:06 minutes long.  I would expect more of these to occur.

Looking back at the summer of 2013 and how things stack up today, I would offer these seven observations:

1.  There was no real plan....so this was like a strategy drawn up by fifth-grade kids, and momentum simply seized the moment.  Because of this attitude....billions of Euro were wasted, and you can look over public opinion as being mostly (more than 50-percent) frustrated.  There are hundreds of ways that it could have been run better....preventing the smugglers from making this into a mass profit scheme....and lessen the public anger.

2.  Politicians fired?  Public reaction has been mostly to lessen their votes for the CDU/CSU, the SPD, the Greens, etc.  If you want to send a message (as Germans envision it), you have to vote AfD. The AfD for the most part.....lacks maturity and has a limited number of candidates who are qualified for elected positions.  It's a one-trick pony....but it's the only pony that suggests the 'We Can Do It' strategy failed.  The odds that the AfD will out-right win one of the three state elections next year?  I would put the odds at better than 50-percent.  But they can't get the partnership situation to run the government.

3.  If you analyzed the negatives of open door.....you eventually come to suggest that young men often are the 'problem children'.  You toss in a progressive society that they've never had to deal with....drugs.....alcohol....expectations being higher than reality, and you end up with a fair number of young men who are more of a threat or burden to society, than a plus-up.

4.  Whether they like the suggestion or not....the German news media has lost some trust in the methods of reporting, and the public is losing respect. 

5.  This idea of using the EU to force other countries to repeat the German 'mistake'?  More child-like behavior, and really damaged the German image around the rest of Europe.

6.  Cost factor?  It's a topic best avoided.  Don't bother asking how much has been spent since day one.....they either can't tell you or won't tell you. 

7.  Long term resolutions?  Ten-thousand cops are being hired up over the next two years.  There's some effort to entice the African countries to hold back the 'flood' but it means funding job training and commerce projects....thus convincing people to stay where they are.  Just about every single resolution....has a cost factor.

I will go as far as suggesting in 2021, as Chancellor Merkel begins her retirement stage....that the Nobel Peace Prize will go to her over the 'We Can Do It' situation, with a majority of Germans laughing over the value of the prize, and their choice.