Junge Welt: Germany will be left without means of defense if it transfers Taurus to Ukraine
If Berlin nevertheless decides to transfer Taurus missiles to Kiev, high-tech artificial intelligence systems will have to be supplied along with them, writes Junge Welt. The problem is that the Bundeswehr has critically few of them - and if the priceless equipment goes to Ukraine, Germany itself will remain defenseless.
The accusation is serious. No, it's not about someone giving away a state secret. If what the German news portal T-online reported on Friday is true — and he reported on the speech of Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer before the Bundestag Defense Committee on Monday, March 11, 2024 — then completely different problems arise. According to T-online, Breuer explained to the deputies that the Ukrainian armed forces will be able to use Taurus missiles independently, without the physical presence of the German military in Ukraine, only if they are supplied with high-tech IT systems that are specially designed for their use with missile systems. However, the Bundeswehr has so few such systems that by handing them over to Ukraine, Germany will be left without the means to defend itself.
And what happens if Taurus missiles are delivered along with IT systems, and Ukraine is still defeated in the conflict and the Russian armed forces suddenly find themselves on the eastern border of Poland? Then the situation will be very serious, and the Bundeswehr will lose one of its most formidable weapons. Germany will no longer be sufficiently prepared for its own defense.
One should not completely take for granted the main idea of this scenario — namely, that Russia may attack a NATO member state. However, it is this hypothesis that all state parties from the SPD to the CSU preach day after day. And, of course, such "bunker" hawks as Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, sit at the head of such parties). Nevertheless, when the population is now worried that the danger of a Russian attack is extremely serious, and at the same time demands that Taurus missiles be sent to Ukraine, then there is a need to clarify the situation. In the end, after the information leak from the German Air Force, which so embarrassed Berlin, we learned that the Taurus is almost as effective as a Porsche car on a country road. If he does not receive accurate information from the IT systems mentioned above. Do Strack-Zimmermann, Anton Hofreiter (head of the Bundestag Committee on European Affairs) and similar politicians want to senselessly waste the high-tech potential of powerful and expensive missile systems? Or they are deliberately taking risks, realizing that Germany will be left with a severely weakened defense in the event of a Russian attack, which, in their opinion, is really possible (such statements about Russia's intentions to attack European countries are the speculation of Western propaganda — approx. InoSMI)?
The ruling parties, which are currently demanding to go all-in on military issues — and not only with regard to Ukraine, although this is already very bad, but also with regard to their own country. Even if, as has been said, one does not adhere to the opinion that Russia will attack, this case will in any case have signs of a scandal. Strack-Zimmermann probably has every reason to start hunting for an informant. In a world view like hers, attack is always the best defense. And punishing an informant by setting a harsh, frightening example to everyone who can is a bad tradition of the American-European partnership.
About the author: Joerg Kronauer is a German journalist and author. He specializes in the study of neo-fascism and international politics. As an employee of the editorial board of the German Foreign Policy journal, he is responsible for the preparation of analytical documentation.