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“Weiter so, Kanzler Scholz”- Volodomir Zelenski
Forgive the German spellings. Big news out of Berlin this evening, courtesy of the Süddeutsche Zeitung:
Published in GeneralIn a sea change in its policy line to this point, the Federal Government decided on Saturday evening to supply the Ukrainian armed forces with 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles from the inventory of the Bundeswehr in order to support the Ukrainian military. This was announced by government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit this evening. The weapons will be delivered to Ukraine as quickly as possible. “The Russian attack on Urkaine marks a turning point,” Chancellor Scholz explained. “It threatens the entire post-war order. In this situation, it is our duty to support the Ukraine to the best of our ability in the defense against the invading army of Vladimir Putin. Germany is on the side of Ukraine.”
Also just read this from Fox Business. I would be more certain if it were Germany itself announcing it, but this is a good sign that perhaps the Germans are reluctantly growing a spine.
What country are you in? What is the mood there? This is good news.
His bio says Central Texas. I know Texans often consider themselves a different country. ;-) But his post sounds like his life has updated since the bio was written!
I live outside of Augsburg. The mood …is hard to break down, but heavy, somber, angry…I am a missionary of sorts, so my sample is skewed…also by living in a smaller large city and not in a larger city like Frankfurt or Munich.
WOLVERINES!!!
That’s because the Germans are being dragged into this kicking and screaming. As explained by NATO’s first Secretary General, Lord Ismay: the purpose of NATO was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” It has always been expected by our NATO partners that the U.S. would carry most of the load in any conflict with Russia. When the old Soviet Union fall, Europe collectively sighed with relief and went into “one world government” building mode because the EU believed, as the title of Francis Fukuyama book proclaimed about the end of the Cold War, it was: The End of History and the Last Man. But history never ends, and we can never seem to learn from it.
So now we have a situation were the Russians want in, the Americans want out, and the Germans are not down and will have to pick up the slack. Yes, I can imagine the German population is not very happy about this, given their past government positions on immigration, energy, economy, so on and so forth, which has not put them into a good position to respond, and now this. As this article in the The American TFP proclaims: “The End of History Just Ended.”
But on the plus side, Germany may be able to get away with just sending weapons for the Ukrainians to use themselves.
Good for Germany. It’s great that someone is standing constructively alongside a democracy under attack, instead of standing safely in the background wringing their hands.
I gotta admit I’m not a fan of Germany starting a war with Russia again.
Weapons from Germany, and from the US, would have been much more useful BEFORE the Russians attacked. Better late than never, I guess.
So it looks like we’re going to get dragged into this sooner rather than later.
Because I just don’t see Putin saying “Ah well, I guess that didn’t work,” and end the hostilities.
They did get some before, it sounds like they’re being re-supplied now that it can be seen that they’re not just cutting and running like the Afghan military did.
Remember, the Russians failed in Afghanistan before we did.
Except we “failed” the same way we “failed” in Vietnam, by leaving prematurely. The Russian failure was different.
They didn’t really fail. They won. They left the Afghans to live there without them. Everyone who ever tries conquers Afghanistan. But there is no reason to stay so they eventually leave. And the Afghans lose because they have to stay. It’s a pathetic part of the globe and there’s no reason to live there.
If someone told you that you had to live in Afghanistan and you weren’t allowed to leave, would you consider that a good thing? No one does. Leaving means winning. The only error the US made was in staying too long and leaving people there with the losers.
Well, sending Ukraine weapons is not a problem. Biden’s handlers know that getting into a fight with Russia is not popular outside of a fringe of the hawks. (The whole rage at neocons is misplaced, honestly. Victor Hanson and a lot of people who are respected on the Right supported the Iraq War. It’s just that reasonable people can realize when a situation changes. Others are still on Kristol meth)
Agreed.
Maybe the Taliban have a few to spare. Just say’n.
About as important-perhaps more so- is the German announcement that they will increase defense spending by 100B and exceed the 2% target (which previously they claimed would take about between 5 years to forever to achieve). The Germans are beginning to realize the danger Russia poses.
Brilliant. Wish I had thought of it.
I will believe it when I see it. There have been promises and commitments before.
So what is Senile Joe doing? Sending small arms and armor? Hey that’l work Right? Nope. Imbecile.
We should be sending thousands of Blackwater mercenary troops with A-10 Warthogs , killer drones, tactical missiles and maybe like 100 rail guns to shell the holy living crap out of the Ruskies. Make them pay. Dearly.
If Ukraine can hold on, Belarus and Crimea are in trouble because the major Russian assaults came from there, and it will be open season on the Russkie collaborators there from now on till eternity . The Ukrainians will have long memories. These collaborators were ultimately complicit in the destruction of Ukraine. They have forever made their deadly bed and now they will have to sleep in it.
“So it looks like we’re going to get dragged into this sooner rather than later.”
When you attack a country with little justification just restore your insane dreams of Empire, you need to be put down.
We don’t have to put “boots on the ground” or directly confront the Russkies, but there are so many other military options open to use. The Russkie heavy armor has to stay on the roads because it is winter and if they try go off road they will get stuck in the mud. They are sitting ducks waiting to be plucked. So pluck them.
The military response of our Woke Military has been totally asinine. Time for them all to be courtmartialed and cashiered out of the military without pensions.
Weapons from Germany, and from the US, would have been much more useful BEFORE the Russians attacked.
Great Point. One has to ask what the hell are these Generals thinking? A credible and competent military would have war-gamed this situation to the max well before hand and would have had multiple deadly responses lying in wait for the Russkies including sticking military poison pills all over the Ukraine for the Russkies to confront.
Republicans in Congress need to right now call these Clown Generals on the carpet to force a better response and to negate any celebratory credit grabbing from our Supreme Leader if things go well in Ukraine.
Vlad can’t back out now, he’s committed.
The Germans have a strong starting point, if they just started maintaining a portion of the massive fleet of air and land combat equipment they built through the last decade of the Cold War, and paying for training days, fuel, parts, and ammo.
With Austin and Milley in charge, they are making sure they have their diversity and equity quotas in order before they take any other actions.
If Milley is into equity, why aren’t they all generals like him?