I love the idea of a German telling a Ukrainian that many Germans ‘might have family memories of conflict.’ Must have been difficult for the Ukrainian ambassador to keep a straight face at that.

It almost makes you wish they still had an ounce of Prussian vigour and militarism left in them. The modern German seems to be absolutely whipped.

I like the title of this article: “Germany’s arrogant pacifism”. It’s really just the flip side of Germany’s past arrogant militarism. I have noticed that it is very difficult to argue with a German whatever point of view he is coming from.

It seemed all was suddenly well between Germany and Russia when the German heavy-metal rock band Scorpions had a great worldwide hit with Wind Of Change and its dreamy lyrics about the winds of change for the better in Russia, in 1991. Indeed, I recall the song was released in the middle of the August coup of that year, and, as the attempted coup quickly evaporated, the song seemed more resonant with meaning. It was played frequently in shops in the latter half of 1991. A German rock band putting out a great song that, had it been Germany’s Eurovision entry (these things are that possible now), no doubt the jury in Moscow would have given Germany douze points. But so many chimeras.

“There is no chimera vainer than the hope that one human heart shall find sympathy in another” – Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

“Germany will be Europe’s most preeminent military power within a decade.”
Most preeminent? Ew.

“The entire West fell for this, but the Germans more so than any other nation.” – this makes it sound as if this was the Germans own decision. But in reality politicians as different as Thatcher, Gorbachev and Mitterand were all paranoid about a resurgent German militarism in the early 90s before unification. Even in the last 90s there was a fear of this and a sense it really wasn’t that long ago they were aggressive. The division of Germany into two parts was about the only thing that gave France the security for them to build an army, enter NATO and form a armed bastion at the blunt edge of the iron curtain. A lot of this was based on stereotypes from the war which anyone with familiarity with German culture will realise had been radically warped by the extreme circumstances of Germany’s fall and occupation.
So this historical fear meant that Germans, in many different political, constitutional, cultural and economic ways were pushed towards mercantile pacifism for the ‘good of Europe’ quite deliberately, and it seems rich for the rest of the West to complain now.

Not much has changed in the past 40-50 years. As a political science professor at the University of Kansas once put it: “As long as he/she can get to a warm part of the world for a few weeks in the winter, the average German doesn’t care about the Russians (of course at that time it was the Soviet Union). The German intellectual community and left politicians have always leaned towards pacifism and accommodation with the Russians. It was always a close thing. Why else would there have been controversy over their level of defense spending in NATO – even at the height of the cold war?

Long story short, the Germans are not dependable. A pity America has had to pivot east because of the far greater Chinese threat.

The United States is undergoing rapid demographic change (due to its “open borders”). By 2040, Western culture will decline to the status of a minority culture, and this country will cease being a Western nation. Hispanic culture will become the dominant culture. (In California, Western culture is already rejected by most residents, and Hispanic culture dominates.)

Germany must replace the United States as the leader of the West. German chancellor Olaf Scholz must begin taking steps in that direction.

The current crisis in Ukraine is an opportunity for the German government to show leadership. Berlin should demand and obtain assurances (from Volodymyr Zelenskyy) that the Ukrainians will modernize their nation. They have been too corrupt and incompetent for too long. The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of Ukraine in 2019 was actually less than the GDP per capita (at purchasing-power parity) in 1991.

IF President Zelenskyy provides these assurances, then the military strategists in the Bundeswehr should determine the weapons and military strategy that are needed to expel the Russian military from Ukraine. Then, Berlin should provide a financial loan to Kyiv so that it can purchase the necessary weapons, and German military instructors should train Ukrainians on using the weapons.

Ge info about another area in which Berlin can show leadership.