Lies about Afghanistan, Conscription, and the Republic

Germany in Autumn of 2021

Last week, German Secretary of Defence (sic) ran a series of adverts in newspapers all across the country (see above). Its main caption reads:

            ‘You have done all honour to Germany.’

Sponsored generously by the German taxpayer, this advert was put up formally by the Bundeswehr’s recruitment service. (As an aside, look at their website: most western social science people who run the governments look suspiciously like the dude on the left-hand side of the picture.)

This was brought up by an advisor to former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Albrecht Müller, whose integrity is immense (which is also why Müller is persona non grata among the more recent crop of SPD politicos), as shown by his acid comment on this:

‘It is the propagandistic preparation for the continuation of foreign interventions, although all reason speaks against it. Here, a catastrophe, a 20-year failure of politics, [NATO] allies and the military is whitewashed.’

Like so many others in post-1949 West Germany, Müller was a leading proponent of engagement with ‘the East’, as envisioned by Germany’s first SPD Chancellor Willy Brandt (in office 1969-74). Elsewhere on the ‘alternative news outlet’ Nachdenkseiten, which Müller co-founded to facilitate the reform of German politics, Müller also wrote this:

‘40 years ago, 300,000 people flocked to the Hofgarten in Bonn to protest against armament and the military. [On 13 Oct. 2021], the Tagesschau [German public state broadcaster ARD’s evening news] begins with three minutes of celebration of the military and its role in Afghanistan, followed later by a 53-minute special broadcast. The Federal President and the Federal Defence Minister were present. They celebrated the military and the taps. In essence, they are concerned with saving military spending in the interest of the arms industry. That is why the disaster of the military mission in Afghanistan is being turned into a victory story.

All of this is true, however unfortunate and uncomfortable it may be, but the truth is—none of it matters. Barely a week later, outgoing Defence Secretary Kramp-Karrenbauern (who was responsible for the above advert), also said the following in an interview for Deutschlandfunk (my emphasis):

Path of Deterrence

Engels (Deutschlandfunk): Reuters reported this morning [21 Oct. 2021] that NATO is considering regional deterrence scenarios for the Baltic and also the Black Sea region, including nuclear weapons-armed air defence. Is that the way NATO is evolving?

Kramp-Karrenbauer: That is the way of deterrence. We have to make it very clear to Russia that in the end—and this is also the deterrence doctrine [Abschreckungsdoktrin]—we are also prepared to use such means, so that it acts as a deterrent beforehand and no one gets the idea of attacking NATO partners, for example, in the areas over the Baltic or in the Black Sea. That is the core idea of NATO, of this alliance, and it is adapted to Russia’s current behaviour. We see in particular violations of the airspace over the Baltic States, but also increasing incursions around the Black Sea.

The political debate on Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 has partially stalled. With a new format, however, Ukraine now wants to bring the Crimean issue back into the global spotlight. The goal: the reintegration of the peninsula.

This is too stupid on too many levels, but let’s begin with the obvious: when was the last time Germany threatened ‘Russia’ with military force? Right, in the 1930s, and we all know how that turned out (do we, Ms. Kramp-Karrenbauer?).

Next, the notion that NATO was founded to deter the enemy from the east (USSR) is, of course, partially true, if only Russian Studies and ‘political science’ in the Euro-Atlantic would, you know, kinda study Russia instead of what western elites think about Russia. It’s a long and sad story, and in case you’d like to know more about it, here’s a good article about how the Western juste milieu quickly discarded Solshenitsyn once he spoke about western society.

Finally, let’s briefly comment on the Ukrainian angle, too: this is an outright lie, for Kramp-Karrenbauer—as well as anyone who actually bothers to read the Minsk II arrangement (as well as the news out of Ukraine)—surely knows that it’s the Ukrainian government that is not implementing Minsk II. As a sidenote, let it be known that Russia isn’t a signatory to that agreement, hence it’s utterly ‘fantastic’ to demand of Moscow to do something about it.

While we’re at it, why not wish for the moon?