Arrogant, incompetent and corrupt: war is shattering our delusions of the German elite

[scipan]

It is too early to say who will win the war in Ukraine, but one nation has already suffered a catastrophic loss of prestige: Germany. The political and business leaders of Europe’s biggest economy have not only failed to give Ukrainians the help they so desperately need, but in their dealings with Russia they have been exposed as at best naive - and at worst complicit.

This week the German leadership crisis deepened when Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor, claimed to be delivering on his promise to send arms to Ukraine — but was revealed by the tabloid Bild to have secretly refused every item of heavy equipment requested by Kyiv. After Scholz had crossed tanks and artillery off the list, an aid package said to be worth €1 billion (£836 million) had been reduced by more than two thirds.

Meanwhile Berlin has been stonewalling on sanctions, claiming that its industry and consumers cannot bear the pain of cutting off energy supplies from Russia. A decade ago, the Germans lectured Greeks and other southern Europeans about austerity, telling them that “an end with horror is better than a horror without end”. Now, as President Zelensky told German MPs a month ago, they care only about protecting their economy.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/24/arrogant-incompetent-corrupt-war-shattering-delusions-german/

https://web.archive.org/web/20220425002429/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/24/arrogant-incompetent-corrupt-war-shattering-delusions-german/

[Hoyt]

1. Will be a shame if this war fractures NATO.

[Joinfortmill]

2. Well, it is the birthplace of Nazis

[I_UndergroundPanther]

5. Actually America

Beliefs about eugenics and stuff is what the nazis modeled thier horrific beliefs on.

[Skittles]

3. very disappointing

because I have long thought they have handled remembrance of the Holocaust well, not allowing revisionist history

now it seems like they are favoring fascism

[stopdiggin]

4. one part of this is quite understandable

and hardly unique to the Germans. And that is a strong desire not to crash and burn one's own economy - in an effort to 'penalize' another. German is not alone here. The other (stonewalling arms and aid) stems from a different set of ideals and considerations - and is (at least from afar) somewhat less defensible.

[scipan]

6. Yes I think you have summarized it well. It's a big country,

with a lot of assets. Why so stingy with their aid?

[Duppers]

7. Damn disappointing.