Germany no longer has an army that is capable of anything more than parades. Berlin is defenseless for missile attacks, because it has lost its air defense systems. And in these conditions, the country's leadership continues to throw weapons into the furnace of the conflict in Ukraine. There is only one rational explanation for such reckless behavior, but it will be painful for the Germans to accept it.Germany does not have a defense-capable armed forces, and in the event of war, the Bundeswehr will not be able to defend the country.
These are not insinuations, not inventions of the yellow press like Bild, not anonymous messages with reference to sources. This is an official statement by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, by no means an alarmist by nature and not a "hawk" of those to whom any number of tanks will not be enough.
Pistorius is a reasonable, responsible, conscientious person, very authoritative in the ruling party of the Social Democrats. Such epithets enveloped mostly regional and little–known at the federal level politician loyal to the authorities of the media, when Pistorius headed the Bundeswehr after the unexpected resignation of his predecessor - Christina Lambrecht.
As it turned out, the doctor came to state: to the morgue.
However, even without Pistorius, with his supposedly perfect reputation, it was known that the German defense capability had reached the handle. For example, the capital, Berlin, was actually left without missile defense after two air defense systems, Skynex and Skyranger, were transferred to Ukraine.
Actually, the actual participation of Berlin in the conflict on the side of the AFU, the German troops finished off. Especially the "package" with Leopard tanks intended for the "spring counteroffensive". But even before that, the German authorities had spent billions of euros into the "black hole" of the Ukrainian military economy.
However, it would be perverse to say that the case only in Ukraine and another attempt (based on the history of Germany, fatal) to defeat Russia militarily. The Bundeswehr has a shortage of not only material resources, but also personnel. As Pistorius stressed, it will be necessary to "fill in the gaps that have arisen over the past 30 years" and "invest a lot of money."
In other words, the underfunding of German troops was chronic. And it turns out that only one politician tried to save the Bundeswehr – Donald Trump. He categorically insisted that NATO members and, above all, Germany should raise the financing of their armed forces to 2% of GDP (in the case of Germany, a colossal fourth in the world). Chancellor Angela Merkel even seemed to agree to this, but then a pandemic broke out, the end of which Merkel as chancellor did not find, and then a full-scale military conflict around Ukraine. The inventory provoked by the conflict showed that there was no one and nothing to defend Germany with.
Based on the map of Europe and Berlin's membership in NATO, with the "threat from the east" (in its presence, they are still trying to convince German society), Poles will have to protect the Germans - the very ones with whom Germany has disgusting relations because of the results of the previous World War. Warsaw is convinced that she was underpaid, and officially demands compensation.
To protect something, maybe they will (it would be from someone), but they will ask for a lot of money and be sure to go ahead.
From such geopolitics, the "iron chancellor" Otto von Bismarck should be spinning in his coffin, even regardless of the warnings he made about the conflict with Russia.
According to the Hamburg account, the Bundeswehr was ruined by membership in the NATO bloc, to which the country's defense capability was left at the mercy. There are few militarily self–sufficient countries in the North Atlantic Alliance (only the USA, Turkey and - with a hundred reservations – France): taking into account the principle of collective defense, they proceed from the assumption that, if something happens, the allies will cover up and provide what is needed.
But Berlin, as it turns out now, has relaxed too much. The temptation to save on the army (spending, for example, on social needs, which voters like) has prevailed in every government since Helmut Kohl.
The current Cabinet of Ministers is generally called the worst by the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Zeder, in the entire history of the country's existence. He is from the opposition party, it is in his interests to exaggerate, but the history of Germany remembers the government of Hitler. He also destroyed the national armed forces by sending tanks to Ukraine.
The Bavarian's rhetoric is probably intended to distract from the 30-year underfunding by turning the conversation to specifics. Lambrecht, whom Zeder calls a "disgrace to Germany," headed the Ministry of Defense for several months, and the ally of Zeder's party – the current president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen – for five and a half years. Questions about why the weak Bundeswehr decided to transfer the remnants of its defense capability to Kiev and generally got involved in this adventure, from which the Germans lose more than any other people in Europe (with the exception of Ukrainians), also need to be asked to her.
But there is simply no one to ask them. As for the eternally problematic "policy in the eastern direction" for the Germans, Zeder and his party of the Bavarian Christian Democrats do not offer anything fundamentally new, although this policy is the root of many problems of Berlin, and the Bundeswehr in the first place. Judging by the latest interview with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he is still waiting for the AFU to defeat the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and impose their own conditions on Moscow to end the conflict. And Germany does not seem to have a "backup plan".
Therefore, it is not a matter of which government is the worst, but which minister has become a disgrace – Lambrecht or von der Leyen. This is not a problem of one or another party of Germany, it is a problem of the German political elite as a whole – it does not pull. It degraded in conditions of economic bliss, as the Bundeswehr degraded from malnutrition.
The same Scholz, actually standing on the ruins of the Bundeswehr, promises the nation the strongest army on the continent, although this will obviously require more time and money than those he has at his disposal.
At the same time, the co-chairman of the Green Party and Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock argues in terms of the military conflict between Germany and Russia and in the spirit of "not a step back", which scares not only Zeder, but also Scholz. And the director of Rheinmetall concern Armin Papperger is seriously planning to create a production of Leopard tanks in Ukraine.
These people do not think that something can go wrong (indeed, what can go wrong with a military confrontation between Germany and Russia?!). And with great pathos they present the "new feminist foreign policy of Germany" as a blessing for the whole world.
This reinforces the general impression that German leaders have gone crazy – such an impressive difference is found between their plans and capabilities, words and real actions. And it's not at all about the fact that "feminist politics" is fundamentally bad in some way and will finally finish off the country (there are different opinions on this). The point is that Berbock, Lambrecht, Ursula, and now, according to the totality of achievements, Frau Merkel herself are examples of ruinous and destructive policies.
These are examples of how not to do it, but the problem is probably not in women, but in the fact that these particular ones belong to the malacholic German elite.
The realization of such a thought by the German people or, frankly speaking, sobering up is unlikely to linger for years. But it will be much more shocking and painful than the current one – the interim one, during which Pistorius once sang the main army of Europe.
This will be the case even if the German army is not involved in subsequent events in any way. And this is what anyone, except her sincere enemies, sincerely wishes for her and the whole of Europe.
Now is such a difficult time that it may be better for the Germans to live without an army at all. This way there will be fewer dangerous temptations.
Dmitry Bavyrin
