Stalwart NATO! Are We Americans Cowering?!
Stalwart NATO! Are We Americans Cowering?!
Jens Stoltenberg, the General Secretary of NATO, has recently proposed sending Ukraine support in the amount of 100 billion Euro, with Polish support, but opposition from Germany and Belgium.
Jens Stoltenberg seeks to make our European allies self-sufficient as a bulwark against the Russian aggressor. Though Stoltenberg does not admit this openly, major German Newspapers, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), report that Stoltenberg and NATO leaders are showing resolve in face of worries about a potential 2025 Trump Presidency and the staggering of the Michael-Johnson-led U.S. House of Representatives.
With support of the Biden Presidency, of course, NATO has gained Finland and Sweden as members, which, with the Baltic States and stalwart Poland, add strategic depth to the safety of Europe in the face of a deluded Putin, who is enamored of a recovery of an imagined great Russian empire.
While Germany dithers about its Taurus missiles, Ukraine could face considerable help with cruise missiles from France with its SPARC and Great Britain with its Storm Shadow cruise missiles. France has already announced it would send Ukraine 78 Howitzers and 40 SCALPs.
Moreover, General Pierre Schill, Chief of Staff, Army (France) has announced that on 30-day notice, France could rush a division (20,000 ground troops) to Ukraine, it seems primarily at securing the front near the border with Belarus. Moreover, General Schill says that France strategically foresees that it could send (including the initial force) 40,000 more, for a grand total of 60,000 troops ultimately on the war front.
Recently, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz awakened rebuke from the UK, when he discussed German hesitancy to involve itself further in Ukraine, as he apparently spilt intelligence that the United Kingdom may have ground troops in Ukraine.
Emanuelle Macron, General Schill, David Cameron (Foreign Minister, UK) and those in the public are supporting poles that are hard to balance: On the one hand, sufficient support to sustain the independence of Ukraine; and On the Other Hand, to stay well clear of escalation or a wartime direct conflict with Russia.
No responsible power in Western Europe advocates or wants direct conflict with Russia.
But the Russian threat is real, especially with Putin’s fantasies of a grand Russian empire.
Already, well off citizens of Poland are gauging the viability of moving to France or Germany, out of fear that a crazed Putin would seek to “reclaim” Polish territory that Russia had taken in the 17th and 19th centuries.
Germany has, I think, a unique take.
After the butchery and genocide and war crimes of World War II, memories are still live, and the idea of German troops in a territory is not welcome.
Germany has psychologically processed in great measure the Apocalypse it wrought during the Third Reich, and the Post-War Constitution was designed to enshrine human equality, due process, and core values of humanity and human dignity.
Moreover, the WWII bombing flattened Germany’s great cities — Dresden being a real jewel in Europe — and Germans value peace. Germans certainly treasure democratic values.
All one has to do is watch Markus Lanz or Maybrit Illner on ZDF television to see lively, intelligent, informed and civil debate among officials and experts about the most complex issues of the day.
Germans generally like Russians. No matter in which city, during the height of the cold war, I would be typically told: Der Russe ist ein guter Mensch. I.e., Russians are good people.
Germans, I think, can treasure Russian culture — with the treasured five-volume translation of Dostoevsky’s great cycle of novels (in the translation of Swetlana Geier (who had both German and Russian as mother-tongue): she is called die Frau mit fünf Elefanten — the lady with five elephants (i.e., the five great Dostoevsky novels).
But condemnation of Putin’s war crimes is quite open in the German newspapers.
Germany is the last country in the world that would want war.
Emanuelle Macron and Olaf Scholz have recently had hard conversations, but Macron knows history too well not to appreciate where Germany is coming from in its peaceable diplomacy.
That is it for my first posting.
I am not this time leaving an option for comments, since I will be out for a while, and in the future would post where the reader could comment.
Some sources:
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/koennten-taurus-ueber-grossbritannien-in-die-ukraine-geliefert-werden-19581729.html
https://www.fr.de/politik/scholz-grossbritannien-ukraine-krieg-soldaten-stationiert-taurus-lieferung-92861784.html
https://www.fr.de/politik/ukraine-pakt-gegen-putin-nato-will-100-milliarden-euro-paket-fuer-zr-92983104.html
https://www.radiobielefeld.de/nachrichten/lokalnachrichten/detailansicht/berlin-was-eine-von-taurus-lieferung-so-heikel-macht.html
https://www.fr.de/politik/donald-trump-nato-wiederwahl-praesident-putin-ukraine-krieg-zr-92762194.html
https://www.dw.com/de/noch-ein-ukraine-gipfel-warum-paris/a-68376815
https://www.fr.de/meinung/kommentare/theater-beenden-92796145.html
https://www.zdf.de/gesellschaft/markus-lanz/markus-lanz-ukraine--leben-mit-dem-krieg-vom-28-november-2023-100.html
https://www.zdf.de/politik/maybrit-illner/amira-mohamed-ali-zur-zukunft-der-ukraine-bei-maybrit-illner-21-maerz-2024-100.html