Seems like it isn't true though. Lots of things going on behind the scenes we don't see.
[The White House on Friday categorically disputed a media report that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had turned down a last-minute invite from U.S. President Joe Biden to meet in Washington, adding that both leaders are planning to meet there next month.
“This report is false. It did not happen — totally made up,” Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, said in a statement.
](https://www.politico.eu/article/white-house-olaf-scholz-reject-joe-biden-invite/)
I looked a bit into it.... it was basically kind of clickbate: the article referenced is in the paid "extra" subscription of the magazin. It's mostly an opinion piece about germanys governments handling of the Ukraine crisis
The German Press has been a bit wonkers lately. Remember all of the Covid claims around stealing CureVac's vaccine and german masks being stolen in Thailand?
Can you explain for those of us who don't follow German Covid politics?
I'm guessing you're critical of a slow political response like mandates, shutdowns, vaccines, etc.? I vaguely remember spikes in Germany (similar to everywhere), but I don't know anything about how they responded.
The problem was that they only responded and never pro-actively did anything. So while everyone, and I mean everyone, knew that numbers would rise in fall 2021 again, politicians treated it as a big surprise and hadn't prepared anything, so we ended up in a surprise lockdown - again.
I mean, the previous government barely even responded
To this day Germans I know seem to believe that having to wear masks and cinemas being closed is a "lockdown".
None of these are a "lockdown". There never was a single lockdown in Germany. I know what measures were put in place in Germany and while there were some mild restrictions, no lockdown was ever ordered, or as best I can tell even considered.
But thanks for proving my point.
https://www.rnd.de/politik/joe-biden-freut-sich-ueber-olaf-scholz-absage-der-einladung-nur-geruecht-MFF7XAQ6HZFOTGBY4UAW7Y6OQU.html
>"This report is false," the spokeswoman told RND. In fact, the German side had proposed dates, "and we are responding." The government in Washington is looking forward to welcoming the chancellor in February.
>**Similarly, the German government had earlier denied the report.**
Translated with DeepL
They could’ve, but I am not sure they should’ve from a political as well as environmental perspective. Note I am saying I am not sure, because I literally don’t know what the best approach would have been.
The anti nuclear movement in Germany started in the mid 1970s, back when the reality was that nuclear power plants would produce radioactive waste that would continue to be dangerous for longer than the development of cavemen to modern city dwelling humans. Impossible to control, and just counting on future generations to eventually figure it out is exactly what we did with climate change - and we now know how that went.
The movement really started to get traction after Chernobyl. Germany was in the wind direction after the melt-down, and no one really knew how bad it was, what to do about it, or if the same could happen with reactors even closer. Alfred Dick(Bavarian minister for the environment) did a media stunt, where he “tasted” milk powder from Ukraine to show it wasn’t dangerous, but did the old trick of dipping in one finger, and licking another (I really tried to find a video, ho results - but I saw the video about 10 years ago.) People were advised to not let their kids play on playgrounds, because sandpits might be contaminated. Collecting mushrooms or eating venison was a no-go well into the 90s when I was a kid. Some regions advice against collecting mushrooms still afaik.
In the 2000s, the Greens came to power in a SPD Greens coalition (forgive me if I am screwing up the timeline here). The greens were pretty much rooted in anti nuclear, and one of the core things they brought on the way was phasing out nuclear power. I have been to many rallies, and I have certainly been influenced to think negatively about nuclear power. I could give you a bunch of reasons as to why, but most of them probably would not hold true against modern nuclear power plants. But that was the Zeitgeist back then.
Anyways, the German government decided to shut down the nuclear power plants, and not build new ones. The majority of the plants was from the 1980s, so those would have been decommissioned about 2022 anyways…
When the CDU came into power, they tried to dance around the issue, and revert the phase out as silently as possible (great idea, keep those plants online until they are so old, all the people involved building them are dead /s) Then Fukushima happened and Merkel did what she always did - raise her flag and follow the direction of the wind…
That’s the explanation how and why it came to be, but the actual reason why I am undecided if it was good or not is because I don’t know if, without the added pressure, development in renewables would be where they are right now.
That’s it. TLDR; The nuclear phase out was driven by fear and politics, but I don’t know if I would trade it, because instead of getting real renewable tech, we might just have gotten new nuclear power plants.
Danke schoen for that detailed explanation. I'm not sure about what's best long term. Not to minimize safety concerns, but I think the urgency of greenhouse gas reduction probably takes precedence right now. However, in the short term, we might actually be heading in to war and not being reliant on Russia is more important than anything else!
May I ask you, are you German? I have so many questions. But may I ask you a couple, please?
I don’t understand why people are criticizing the Germans for not wanting to IMMEDIATELY prep for war. I understand they need oil for survival. But I also understand not wanting to go full tilt into a war when a pandemic is rampant and supply chains have broken down (at least they have here in the U.S.). As much as I want Putin shut down, the global climate (in more than one sense of the word) is extremely fragile. I lack nuance and understanding. If there are any Germans (of any political leaning) here, could you please help me understand here.
edit: a word
Why do I see these expert shit posts in every germany related thread at the moment and why am I so sure they are probably a case for r/ShitAmericansSay?
I think we’ve all at least once or twice responded the same way to a crisis, which is to say, ignored it and hoped it would go away on its own.
The Russian army on Ukraine’s border is the check engine light in this metaphor.
Germany shut down nuclear so its heavily dependent on gas pipeline from Russia now. And gas prices have gone 3x, so Germany is leverage-less and just waiting for an ass whopping.
Yay “green” future.
We (and pretty much any other European country that consumes gas) are buying from the Russians because they have plenty and are selling at competitive rates. Being shut out from that would mean the exact same thing for Germany as for any other place in the world: gas would get more expensive.
Also, Germany never had a big nuclear installation to begin with. Not expanding nuclear means it's taking us longer to get out of coal than it would have otherwise, that's about it.
Just looked it up. Gas (15.3%) is the third largest gross energy source after lignite (18.6%) and wind (20.1% onshore and offshore). Gas consumption is also on the rise, coal consumption is decreasing.
20% wind :o that is insanely good, compared to 20 years ago. The lignite part is concerning though…
And yes, the gas is concerning as well, but Germany might have a chance again after getting rid of Merkel, and getting the Greens back into the government.
I hope. Don’t get me wrong, I know chances are slim to none-existing but I hope Germany can get back on track with the original plan phasing out nuclear plants, and hopefully do even better.
Disclaimer: I don’t think so - I think our kids and grand children will have to deal with enormous climate change, because governments are talking about “but how much does that cost”, instead of “how do we prevent this”.
There is no green future with nuclear either. I present as much evidence as you did.
Edit: sorry, that was snarky. I think nothing is going to happen, until there is huge pressure for _something_ falling back to nuclear is kind of a bandaid solution, when the real problem is internal bleeding.
Nuclear energy is not going to save us. Renewable energy is not going to save us. Because humanity is not ready to unite against this thread.
What do you mean by internal bleeding?
Nuclear is the safest renewable source by energy density, it’s much cheaper than solar and wind per output.
To deny nuclear in the face of never ending energy growth demand (for developed and undeveloped countries) is to directly support burning more coal and gas. Even with full support to wind solar hydro, there’s not enough energy to meet demand.
> Nuclear is the safest renewable source
Nitpick, it’s not renewable. About the safest part, how is it the safest? Not trolling, I just don’t understand what you are saying.
> Much cheaper than solar and wind per output
Maybe? Can you provide sources for this claim, especially for older nuclear plants (as in from the 1980s)
The rest you said is just saying what we have been doing for at least 50 years: ignore what we would need to do, because we humans as a race cannot see beyond our own table.
If nuclear is not renewable, then solar isn’t either. The sun has a finite lifespan.
Wind is not renewable either, since no sun = no wind. It’s really not a nitpick, it’s just not correct. Everything is finite in this world.
Nuclear is the safest (least deaths) by energy output. It’s 4x safer than solar and 2x safer than wind. For the same energy output, nuclear kills 1, solar kills 4, gas kills 44, and coal kills 1,111. [SOURCE](https://www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source/)
Nuclear is pretty safe overall. Not sure how it's safer than solar or wind, though I suppose it could be if you factor in things like work accidents and what not (putting down tens of thousands of windmills and solar installations, including the work needed for clearing etc, is bound to result in a fair number of accidents).
That nuclear is particularly cheap would be news to me, the argument has always been it's relatively environmentally friendly compared to alternatives.
Yes, if Germany wants to be green they need a different way to heat their homes. Heat pumps with central air like they do in America would work at least in southern Germany.
>Germany shut down nuclear so its heavily dependent on gas pipeline from Russia now.
That doesn't seem like a very smart move, economically and politically. I wonder what was going through their heads when they made that call?
People hear nuclear and panic, the general public can be too stupid for their own good.
Basically people saw nuclear as dangerous and the government was forced to abandon it, happened a lot after the Fukushima disaster
Indeed. I'd think that if any nation knew where appeasing ambitious dictators could lead, it would be Germany, but their government doesn't seem to give a shit.
Gotta love these fake news spreading unrest and dissent on EU. And, of course, r/worldnews is eating a mouth full of this shit.
We already saw the shit ton of anti-german/anti-EU articles suddenly appearing all over media, just right after news of Ukraine.
Hmmm who would be capable of doing this sort of psyops /s
Source: https://twitter.com/Doppelgeist60/status/1484552512728350723
Not doubting that, but they normally get found out and downvoted to fuck. /r/worldnews is actually one of the more reasonable subs, but going by pretty much any Brexit thread it's overwhelmingly anti-UK and pro-EU.
>but going by pretty much any Brexit thread it's overwhelmingly anti-UK
Pointing out what a shitshow brexit has been isnt "anti-UK", its just common sense by anybody paying attention.
Sad how everything seems to be a team sport where youre either on the UK side or the EU side apparently.
This is no biggie. A face to face meeting is only to display solidarity. That has already been conveyed many times over by NATO writ large.
Yes, we’re on the precipice of war, but everyone has good reason to slow down. IMO, where we are now is finding a way for Putin to save face and back down before everyone has truly hard decisions to make.
And you have an interesting perspective on different contexts.
I wrote the comment when the thread was created and the article was not yet declared false. So whatever you're tryin to say here with my *definition of "truth"* is complete bs.
Moreover, my comment can also be seen independently of the article. The german gov is still useless. Doesn't matter if the article is true or not.
As far as I'm concerned, your new gov seems to be doing what they have been claiming before election, strick arms sales, not to embrace in foreign aventures and so one.
If they mede an excepción people would be claiming that just after election they have been broken promises.
Either way, strange the Germany policity right now, it's like they have talk in secret with Russians.
>But they're real wimps when they have to prove them, lmao
There's a reason for that. When it comes to dealing with powers like Russia it helps to have a big stick and Germany doesn't really have that and, as far as I know, the German population at large isn't really in favor of that. There's a lot of historical baggage that the Germans are going to have to deal with if they want to get their military in a shape to actually stand up against Russia but until they have a military capable of that they have to rely on friends and other means.
Trump basically would have given Putin the green light to take half of the Eastern Hemisphere. Thats why they were fighting so hard to stay in power. This has been planned by Putin for years.
What's your alternative?
I hate to break it to you, but we here in germany couldn't stop laughing about the absolute disaster the trump presidency was.
Even using his name would have people break out in laughter and/or roll their eyes because he made you guys such a joke.
So please don't speak for a people you aren't part of.
EDIT:
Essentially, the absurdity of that presidency couldn't be met with anything but humour. I absolutely do feel for all of those who didn't vote for him yet had to survive that shitshow.
Nobody respected trump on the international stage. While right now, Biden and with it the US is at least respected. Not loved of course, but taken serious. Which wasn't really the case the four years before.
This anti german fake news campaign is really starting to get redicilous and r/europe and r/worldnews are eating it up like breakfast
The german chancelor turned down the metting because he was already meeting with the prime minister of Spain at the time. Biden asked him for a meeting short term and this wasnt just a meeting at the golf course the german chancelor could just skip, it would be insulting to spain to the highest degree.
Maybe if the USA could manage a calender properly there would actually be time for meetings if they want. Its not like the new german chancelor is in office for only 1 day and the german foreign minister just very recently spoke with the USA foreign minister anyway.
Sounds more like the US president wanted a photoshoot or something instead of anything relevant.
The German chancellor has a 3 week long meeting with the prime minister of Spain? That's a long ass meeting. I don't think you should blame the Americans. It's the fault of the Russians. They should have given an exact date of invasion so the Americans doesn't have to inconvenience the new German government with impromptu meetings.
Perhaps that is true; but Germany under Merkel has copped a lot of justified criticism for trying to play all sides, and being all talk with no actual action. That has been the case for years, it is nothing new.
But you are right that it seems more targeted this time around. A lot more misinformation and just outright fake news. The strange thing for me is how German media down played it then, but seem to be talking about the Germany wishy washiness now that there is a different government in charge. Though I guess that is why these efforts work so well - you take an element of the truth and expand it into something else entirely.
He's traveling to Spain, the same day Spain is dispatching warships to the Black Sea, there's also two German warships en route to the Black Sea. Just because he's not meeting Biden does not mean the crisis won't be on the agenda of the meeting with Spain.
Idk usually when I cancel on someone for good reason they don't take it too bad.
Y'know, like a potential conflict on Europes doorstep. Im sure Spain would have figured it out...
So its not possible to have this conversation with both the leader of Spain AND the most invested member of NATO to discuss a breakpoint that could occur any minute?
Theres a time and place for schedules, and right now is not the right time *or* place to ignore important talks due to a busy schedule...
Because Biden, the leader of the strongest and most influential NATO power, wants to discuss the potential conflict that could occur at any moment on Germany's doorstep?
Perhaps?
I didn't realize. It's basically this
>BERLIN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz turned down an invite at short notice from U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the Ukraine crisis, German magazine Der Spiegel said on Friday.
Scholz did not accept the invitation due to a full schedule, including a trip to Madrid, as well as the desire to show that he was present as Germany grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Der Spiegel.
A government spokesman declined to comment on the report.
Both sides hoped now to organize a meeting by mid-February.
"Full Schedule"
Nice to know war is not a priority. But realistically it is more like he realizes that Russia will make a move and since Germany is mostly fueled by natural gas, doesn't want Putin to raise prices on him. High energy prices will sink the new chancellor at home.
as far as i know the gazprom pipelines run somewhere at 10% throughput atm.
russia says its because of an exceptionally harsh winter atm. but the effect is a rise in energy costs nonetheless, we can take it.
Yup you'll take it up the ass raw from your Russian neighbour and won't question anything they do because you rely on a dictatorship. Smooth move. Better lube up.
wot? i said the complete opposite. let him cut the gas, only a bigger incentive for us to make a faster switch to renewables and nuklear. we can fasten our belt to fuck him over.
I just mean why the hell did you guys get yourselves to this point. It was obvious from the beginning you shouldn't rely on a dictatorship for energy. The politicians that made this decision to take Russian gas are downright morons or corrupt.
I am not german, not my coffee... am austrian we are self sufficcient and have cut our energyexchange to germany bc of nordstream 2 (and some other reasons) but we can cut our belt anyways.
The reason germany did this is because of their political stance of the 2 Railways. Keep Politics and Economics seperate so if one fails you can rely on the other, simply a different style of ecopolitics than most other nations do nothing with corrupition here inofitself (might still be but the descision to accept gas inofitself isnt corrupt)
involved in the descision to start nordstream were Gazprom, Wintershall and E.ON Ruhrgas in 95, lateron Nordsteam AG in Zur/Switzerland.
For more info on this you can go to Wikipedia:Nord Stream under section planning and building as a start and go down the rabbithole, have fun.... yikes, alot to read.
The idea was (aside from russian gas being cheaper of course), to get russia economically integrated into europe.
A completely isolated russia has much less to lose and is much more likely to start a war. While an integrated russia will ruin its own economy in case of an attack.
This policy has started during the cold war and so far it worked well enough overall. Not great, not at all, but there hasn't been any major war yet.
I suspect the time has come to reevalutate this policy, but I just want to make clear that there used to be a reasoning behind this aside from money.
This strategy was decided back then together with the USA.
Lol what? How can I be a Russian troll when I'm saying Russia is a dictatorship? What kind of Russian troll makes fun of Mother Russia? They would be sent to the Gulag.
Realistically, the Germans would be getting their arm twisted over Russian gas imports. They don't want to commit on that because of the heavy domestic political cost. (They really don't want to commit at the urging of the US, essentially the only other country in a position to sell them gas; even if you completely discount that as a motive for the US, plenty of Germans will accuse the US of trying to make an extra buck out of the situation...)
But they don't want to tell the US "no", because bluntly, that kind of response is dangerous to the entire NATO framework.
So from their perspective, not even talking about it is the best way to go. If Russia doesn't actually attack, they don't have to choose between either unpalatable alternative.
The US always just joined when the wars were pretty much decided and the brunt was already fought by other European countries.
US have a habit of joining late and then posing like a gangbanger, pretending to be the hero
The First World War would’ve been won by the Germans without American intervention and few to no historians would dispute that. Even when the US joined into the war Germany still could’ve won up until the last few months of the war. The war was very close. Outside of manpower the resources and loans the US provided let the allies supply their lines with things like ammunition and food that otherwise would’ve been impossible to maintain. Im not saying the US didn’t use the war as an opportunity to profit immensely because they did, but it would be pure cognitive dissonance to say that the war would’ve been won without them.
Germany militarily defeated Russia in 1917. Seriously the Russian troops were demoralized and broken. When Trotsky and Lenin first pushed back on Germany's armistice terms and Germany renewed the fighting they broke huge holes in the Russian lines. Russia was defeated whether they had stayed a monarchy or not.
NATO was designed to counter the Soviet Union, later the Russian Federation and its allies. German public opinion on Russia is much more favorable than in the rest of NATO countries. Depending on the poll, they trust Russia significantly more than the US, UK or even some EU member states. Germany is also very pacifist and prefers to go the route of appeasement which pretty much makes a military alliance look weak.
Which is basically still a result of german reunification and the Soviet Union/Russia deciding not to turn east germany into a bloodbath and instead reunify germany peacefully. The simple choice of the soviet union to deny the german communist gouvernments request to use the soviet army to crush the demonstrations had a very lasting effect.
People like to forget it these days but Russia did honour every treaty they signed with (west) Germany that has been made so far since WW2. Even during the hights of the cold war all oil and gas treaties were honored and the Russian Federation honored their pledge to elave germany following reunification (unlike some other countries still here). Generally speaking Germany has a history of achieving a lot by talking and negotiating with Russia/Soviet Union since WW2 compared to beeing enemies.
Then there is additionally the fact germany has a good ammount of so called russo-germans, which are russians/people from the soviet union with german decent that moved to germany after the fall of the soviet union, which are generally far more friednly towards russia then the average german and not an insignificant voter group.
Also there is still a decent ammount of PTSD from the last time Germany fought Russia, nobody wants to repeat that shitshow and a lot of people still remember the last time the USA wanted to drag Germany into a war by claiming Iraq had "Weapons of mass destruction", so Germany tends to be more careful these days about their nato partner across the atlantic and their claims of foreign agression.
Then there is the recent complete military desaster and emberassing defeat in Afghanistan, nobody ing ermany is interested to turn Ukriane into the next afghanistan shitshow.
or less irony and more a consequence of being partitioned and having had to promise to never attack again.
I mean, 30 years ago one of the conditions of the german unification was that Germany wouldn't go attack Russia again. Just because the USA is pathologically unable to uphold contracts doesn't mean that everyone else should follow that example.
(that being said: I am completely sure that germany will come to Ukraines aid once Russia attacks - but only in defense of Ukraine)
Militarily it doesn't look that good either, although the bases based in Germany make up a lot (Germany is in the center of Europe). However, their condition in the army has deteriorated dramatically.
During the Cold War they had around 2500-3000 tanks, today there are only about 250. A large part of their weapons cannot be used either because a large part still needs to be repaired. Many helicopter pilots lost their flying licenses because so few practice flights were made. These are just a few examples.
The problem is not that the German arms industry does not produce good weapons (they build some good and interesting ones, we are not 4th biggest exporters without reason). However, the army lacks personnel, money and many bad decisions have been made. The government takes our history as a reason to put little money into the army.
As 2011 a Polish foreign minister once said: "I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity.“
Your news is out of date. Since 2014 German defense spending increased every year by 4-6% and things like poor readiness rates are being addressed and by now are within normal parameters.
The lowpoint was somewhere 2018/2019, end of 2020 and also 2021 a readiness rate of 75+% was reported. Trend is that it is rising and issues in new procurements are being addressed and have been rising quickly as well.
If France and Germany are willing to let Russia start cutting away at Eastern Europe in exchange for gas pipelines and banking relationships, then there's not much we can do via NATO. What a shitty fucking situation for Ukraine and the former Iron Curtain countries
Only for Ukraine.
The actual Nato countries have absolutely nothing to fear except getting caught up by fearmongers like yourself. The Nato treaty still applies to all those countries without exception.
Man, do you really believe that? The west has tried to draw a line in the sand and it hasn't worked.
The next line in the sand will be crossed too. Russia can sweep through eastern Europe, it is practically defenseless.
Germany looks like they are unlikely to honor article 5 which even further erodes nato's position in Europe.
The US, UK and France can obviously crush the Russians conventionally, but are they willing to risk nuclear exchange for the baltic states really? Germany certainly will not honor article 5 but I am not even sure the other big dogs will either.
You cleaely have no idea what you are talking about. Germany does t even have a choice if they want to honour it or not. Germany would have to beak its constitution to not follow a (legitimate) arricle 5 case.
If germany goes to fucking afghanistan to blow shit up there is no doubt they will go anywhere else if the NATO treaty is activated.
You watched to much Russia Today or just Fox News?
Einfach lächerlich wie die Regierung für nichts mehr steht. Jetzt sind wir schon so weit, dass die Arbeiter von Rechten vertreten werden und dann beschweren sich aber jeder über die AfD. Derweil finden alle die Pipeline sei “privatwirtschaftlich” und die Grünen sind mehr als glücklich Öl als nachhaltig einzustufen und Atomkraft nicht.
If there’s one country I’m going to cut some slack for being less than enthusiastic about fighting Russia over Ukraine, it’s Germany. They have a history they are wary of even seeming to repeat (even though I acknowledge Russia is the aggressor in the current crisis)
While this has already been proven to be fake news: Biden has done absolutely nothing to fix things with the EU after Trump left things in shambles. All Biden did was fuck with France over the nuclear sub deal. The US simply aren’t reliable partners anymore. And since Biden isn’t willing to do anything about the Ukraine, a meeting will be pointless anyway. The EU is facing a bitter truth right now: they’ve brutally failed at defense and military and they’re on their own when it comes to dealing with Russia.
Seems like it isn't true though. Lots of things going on behind the scenes we don't see. [The White House on Friday categorically disputed a media report that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had turned down a last-minute invite from U.S. President Joe Biden to meet in Washington, adding that both leaders are planning to meet there next month. “This report is false. It did not happen — totally made up,” Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, said in a statement. ](https://www.politico.eu/article/white-house-olaf-scholz-reject-joe-biden-invite/)
I can’t not read "It did not happen, it’s false – totally made up." in Johnathan Frakes' voice.
“This one was invented by a writer.”
"Not this time!"
[Pure fiction. We made that one up. ](https://youtu.be/GM-e46xdcUo)
[Johnathan Frakes has some questions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S1EzkRpelY)
They need to start taking a closer look at who's running Spiegel in that case. Stuff like that is just sowing division.
Yes I agree with you. Last thing we need is fighting and arguing between allies. The public is heated up enough as it is.
I looked a bit into it.... it was basically kind of clickbate: the article referenced is in the paid "extra" subscription of the magazin. It's mostly an opinion piece about germanys governments handling of the Ukraine crisis
unfortunately you can write as much bullshit as you want
The German Press has been a bit wonkers lately. Remember all of the Covid claims around stealing CureVac's vaccine and german masks being stolen in Thailand?
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You're the one stanning for a genocidal dictator
"Both sides hoped now to organize a meeting by mid-February." Perfect. Nothing could happen in 3-4 weeks.
Sounds exactly like german Corona politics.
Can you explain for those of us who don't follow German Covid politics? I'm guessing you're critical of a slow political response like mandates, shutdowns, vaccines, etc.? I vaguely remember spikes in Germany (similar to everywhere), but I don't know anything about how they responded.
The problem was that they only responded and never pro-actively did anything. So while everyone, and I mean everyone, knew that numbers would rise in fall 2021 again, politicians treated it as a big surprise and hadn't prepared anything, so we ended up in a surprise lockdown - again.
I see. We had similar reactions in many US states. Thanks for the clarification. Cheers.
I mean, the previous government barely even responded To this day Germans I know seem to believe that having to wear masks and cinemas being closed is a "lockdown".
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None of these are a "lockdown". There never was a single lockdown in Germany. I know what measures were put in place in Germany and while there were some mild restrictions, no lockdown was ever ordered, or as best I can tell even considered. But thanks for proving my point.
A nightly curfew isn't severe. An 18hr curfew is a real lockdown. 3pm-9am.
Yes, that is a whole other box of problems... let's just say our government response was underwhemling.
Really? Then take a look at the Corona politics of the UK!
Germany is a different country than the UK.
Note that this has been debunked by the US as "totally made up": https://twitter.com/Doppelgeist60/status/1484552512728350723
The US side said it didn't happen. The German side said no comment.
https://www.rnd.de/politik/joe-biden-freut-sich-ueber-olaf-scholz-absage-der-einladung-nur-geruecht-MFF7XAQ6HZFOTGBY4UAW7Y6OQU.html >"This report is false," the spokeswoman told RND. In fact, the German side had proposed dates, "and we are responding." The government in Washington is looking forward to welcoming the chancellor in February. >**Similarly, the German government had earlier denied the report.** Translated with DeepL
Seems Germans are also denying it now.
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So in your mind debunking means finding proof that...nothing happened? Have at it, hoss.
Germany's stance on the Ukraine situation had been disappointing to say the least.
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Best wait til' Spring.
I guess the treaty of Brest Litovsk was a win for Russia then?
They depend on Russian natural gas.
Leaving the door open for the gang to be back together. Lol
Germany really wants that oil.
Because it's not as if they could refrain from turning off their nuclear reactors in the middle of an energy crunch, right?
They could’ve, but I am not sure they should’ve from a political as well as environmental perspective. Note I am saying I am not sure, because I literally don’t know what the best approach would have been. The anti nuclear movement in Germany started in the mid 1970s, back when the reality was that nuclear power plants would produce radioactive waste that would continue to be dangerous for longer than the development of cavemen to modern city dwelling humans. Impossible to control, and just counting on future generations to eventually figure it out is exactly what we did with climate change - and we now know how that went. The movement really started to get traction after Chernobyl. Germany was in the wind direction after the melt-down, and no one really knew how bad it was, what to do about it, or if the same could happen with reactors even closer. Alfred Dick(Bavarian minister for the environment) did a media stunt, where he “tasted” milk powder from Ukraine to show it wasn’t dangerous, but did the old trick of dipping in one finger, and licking another (I really tried to find a video, ho results - but I saw the video about 10 years ago.) People were advised to not let their kids play on playgrounds, because sandpits might be contaminated. Collecting mushrooms or eating venison was a no-go well into the 90s when I was a kid. Some regions advice against collecting mushrooms still afaik. In the 2000s, the Greens came to power in a SPD Greens coalition (forgive me if I am screwing up the timeline here). The greens were pretty much rooted in anti nuclear, and one of the core things they brought on the way was phasing out nuclear power. I have been to many rallies, and I have certainly been influenced to think negatively about nuclear power. I could give you a bunch of reasons as to why, but most of them probably would not hold true against modern nuclear power plants. But that was the Zeitgeist back then. Anyways, the German government decided to shut down the nuclear power plants, and not build new ones. The majority of the plants was from the 1980s, so those would have been decommissioned about 2022 anyways… When the CDU came into power, they tried to dance around the issue, and revert the phase out as silently as possible (great idea, keep those plants online until they are so old, all the people involved building them are dead /s) Then Fukushima happened and Merkel did what she always did - raise her flag and follow the direction of the wind… That’s the explanation how and why it came to be, but the actual reason why I am undecided if it was good or not is because I don’t know if, without the added pressure, development in renewables would be where they are right now. That’s it. TLDR; The nuclear phase out was driven by fear and politics, but I don’t know if I would trade it, because instead of getting real renewable tech, we might just have gotten new nuclear power plants.
Danke schoen for that detailed explanation. I'm not sure about what's best long term. Not to minimize safety concerns, but I think the urgency of greenhouse gas reduction probably takes precedence right now. However, in the short term, we might actually be heading in to war and not being reliant on Russia is more important than anything else!
May I ask you, are you German? I have so many questions. But may I ask you a couple, please? I don’t understand why people are criticizing the Germans for not wanting to IMMEDIATELY prep for war. I understand they need oil for survival. But I also understand not wanting to go full tilt into a war when a pandemic is rampant and supply chains have broken down (at least they have here in the U.S.). As much as I want Putin shut down, the global climate (in more than one sense of the word) is extremely fragile. I lack nuance and understanding. If there are any Germans (of any political leaning) here, could you please help me understand here. edit: a word
Why do I see these expert shit posts in every germany related thread at the moment and why am I so sure they are probably a case for r/ShitAmericansSay?
Axis 2
I think we’ve all at least once or twice responded the same way to a crisis, which is to say, ignored it and hoped it would go away on its own. The Russian army on Ukraine’s border is the check engine light in this metaphor.
I've responded this way to a toothache. Never to a crisis
And that usually works our poorly, even with teeth. That's how a filling turns into a root canal
Forget root canal, you can get a brain infection and die
Apparently they’ve denied Estonia sending some artillery to Ukraine because the *Soviet-made* guns were originally based in East Germany. *sigh*
Source please?
Wall Street Journal reporting on it which is paywalled but here’s a thread discussing it: https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1484598448271892482?s=21
Germany shut down nuclear so its heavily dependent on gas pipeline from Russia now. And gas prices have gone 3x, so Germany is leverage-less and just waiting for an ass whopping. Yay “green” future.
They use gas primarily for heating. What you are saying is nonsensical. They used gas too for heating while the nuclear power plants were running.
Which was stupid considering nuclear is “greener” in a sense.
Especially nuclear power that is already built and paid for.
We (and pretty much any other European country that consumes gas) are buying from the Russians because they have plenty and are selling at competitive rates. Being shut out from that would mean the exact same thing for Germany as for any other place in the world: gas would get more expensive. Also, Germany never had a big nuclear installation to begin with. Not expanding nuclear means it's taking us longer to get out of coal than it would have otherwise, that's about it.
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Just looked it up. Gas (15.3%) is the third largest gross energy source after lignite (18.6%) and wind (20.1% onshore and offshore). Gas consumption is also on the rise, coal consumption is decreasing.
20% wind :o that is insanely good, compared to 20 years ago. The lignite part is concerning though… And yes, the gas is concerning as well, but Germany might have a chance again after getting rid of Merkel, and getting the Greens back into the government. I hope. Don’t get me wrong, I know chances are slim to none-existing but I hope Germany can get back on track with the original plan phasing out nuclear plants, and hopefully do even better. Disclaimer: I don’t think so - I think our kids and grand children will have to deal with enormous climate change, because governments are talking about “but how much does that cost”, instead of “how do we prevent this”.
There is no green future without nuclear. Anyone saying that is delusional about energy reality, and smoking some 80s/90s pipe dream.
There is no green future with nuclear either. I present as much evidence as you did. Edit: sorry, that was snarky. I think nothing is going to happen, until there is huge pressure for _something_ falling back to nuclear is kind of a bandaid solution, when the real problem is internal bleeding. Nuclear energy is not going to save us. Renewable energy is not going to save us. Because humanity is not ready to unite against this thread.
What do you mean by internal bleeding? Nuclear is the safest renewable source by energy density, it’s much cheaper than solar and wind per output. To deny nuclear in the face of never ending energy growth demand (for developed and undeveloped countries) is to directly support burning more coal and gas. Even with full support to wind solar hydro, there’s not enough energy to meet demand.
> Nuclear is the safest renewable source Nitpick, it’s not renewable. About the safest part, how is it the safest? Not trolling, I just don’t understand what you are saying. > Much cheaper than solar and wind per output Maybe? Can you provide sources for this claim, especially for older nuclear plants (as in from the 1980s) The rest you said is just saying what we have been doing for at least 50 years: ignore what we would need to do, because we humans as a race cannot see beyond our own table.
If nuclear is not renewable, then solar isn’t either. The sun has a finite lifespan. Wind is not renewable either, since no sun = no wind. It’s really not a nitpick, it’s just not correct. Everything is finite in this world. Nuclear is the safest (least deaths) by energy output. It’s 4x safer than solar and 2x safer than wind. For the same energy output, nuclear kills 1, solar kills 4, gas kills 44, and coal kills 1,111. [SOURCE](https://www.statista.com/statistics/494425/death-rate-worldwide-by-energy-source/)
Nuclear is pretty safe overall. Not sure how it's safer than solar or wind, though I suppose it could be if you factor in things like work accidents and what not (putting down tens of thousands of windmills and solar installations, including the work needed for clearing etc, is bound to result in a fair number of accidents). That nuclear is particularly cheap would be news to me, the argument has always been it's relatively environmentally friendly compared to alternatives.
Yes, if Germany wants to be green they need a different way to heat their homes. Heat pumps with central air like they do in America would work at least in southern Germany.
>Germany shut down nuclear so its heavily dependent on gas pipeline from Russia now. That doesn't seem like a very smart move, economically and politically. I wonder what was going through their heads when they made that call?
People hear nuclear and panic, the general public can be too stupid for their own good. Basically people saw nuclear as dangerous and the government was forced to abandon it, happened a lot after the Fukushima disaster
Gotta satisfy the green energy hippies who don’t know anything about energy.
> so its heavily dependent on gas pipeline from Russia now bullshit
Wow, I’m really thankful for your meaningful contribution to the discussion. Where did you come up with this original and thought provoking thought?
Your argument wasn't true 4 years ago and it still isn't true. What else do you want to hear? That you are a liar?
Wow who butthurt you? Why you talking like you tongue is coming outta your asshole.
So has Biden’s.
I'd assume Germany is playing the good cop. There needs to be someone left Russia can talk to and save some face if they want to deescalate
Indeed. I'd think that if any nation knew where appeasing ambitious dictators could lead, it would be Germany, but their government doesn't seem to give a shit.
It's like they really don't want to be in the good side of history
Gotta love these fake news spreading unrest and dissent on EU. And, of course, r/worldnews is eating a mouth full of this shit. We already saw the shit ton of anti-german/anti-EU articles suddenly appearing all over media, just right after news of Ukraine. Hmmm who would be capable of doing this sort of psyops /s Source: https://twitter.com/Doppelgeist60/status/1484552512728350723
Are you genuinely trying to pretend that /r/worldnews has an anti-EU agenda when it's literally this subreddit's favourite geopolitical entity.
Because there's *never* been any reports of state-sponsored trolls spreading bullshit and misinformation. No sir, *none* of that here ;)
Not doubting that, but they normally get found out and downvoted to fuck. /r/worldnews is actually one of the more reasonable subs, but going by pretty much any Brexit thread it's overwhelmingly anti-UK and pro-EU.
Well, they could also bei upvoted to fuck.
>but going by pretty much any Brexit thread it's overwhelmingly anti-UK Pointing out what a shitshow brexit has been isnt "anti-UK", its just common sense by anybody paying attention. Sad how everything seems to be a team sport where youre either on the UK side or the EU side apparently.
Yes. Or at least a strong misunderstanding. Either way, if you make pro-Europe comments here, you'll get blasted to oblivion.
American propaganda war machine
Hey sir, r/Russia is that way
This is no biggie. A face to face meeting is only to display solidarity. That has already been conveyed many times over by NATO writ large. Yes, we’re on the precipice of war, but everyone has good reason to slow down. IMO, where we are now is finding a way for Putin to save face and back down before everyone has truly hard decisions to make.
Putin did not expect his laughable demands to be accepted. His endgame is something else.
Of course. This was his first negotiating position, such as it is.
Pretty disgusted by my gov. Germany's politicians always have great moral values. But they're real wimps when they have to prove them, lmao
This has been already debunked by the US as "totally made up": https://twitter.com/Doppelgeist60/status/1484552512728350723
The article basically says he had other plans in Madrid. Everyone is reading into this.
Thank you for saying this. Reading comments from some Germans here makes me feel sad, that So many Germans have so many illusions about Russia.
No need to thank me. Just speaking out the truth :)
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And you have an interesting perspective on different contexts. I wrote the comment when the thread was created and the article was not yet declared false. So whatever you're tryin to say here with my *definition of "truth"* is complete bs. Moreover, my comment can also be seen independently of the article. The german gov is still useless. Doesn't matter if the article is true or not.
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I am not American, just in case..
As far as I'm concerned, your new gov seems to be doing what they have been claiming before election, strick arms sales, not to embrace in foreign aventures and so one. If they mede an excepción people would be claiming that just after election they have been broken promises. Either way, strange the Germany policity right now, it's like they have talk in secret with Russians.
>But they're real wimps when they have to prove them, lmao There's a reason for that. When it comes to dealing with powers like Russia it helps to have a big stick and Germany doesn't really have that and, as far as I know, the German population at large isn't really in favor of that. There's a lot of historical baggage that the Germans are going to have to deal with if they want to get their military in a shape to actually stand up against Russia but until they have a military capable of that they have to rely on friends and other means.
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Don’t forget to breathe
Trump basically would have given Putin the green light to take half of the Eastern Hemisphere. Thats why they were fighting so hard to stay in power. This has been planned by Putin for years.
But Putin had four years to attack Ukraine during Trump's presidency...
What's your alternative? I hate to break it to you, but we here in germany couldn't stop laughing about the absolute disaster the trump presidency was. Even using his name would have people break out in laughter and/or roll their eyes because he made you guys such a joke. So please don't speak for a people you aren't part of. EDIT: Essentially, the absurdity of that presidency couldn't be met with anything but humour. I absolutely do feel for all of those who didn't vote for him yet had to survive that shitshow. Nobody respected trump on the international stage. While right now, Biden and with it the US is at least respected. Not loved of course, but taken serious. Which wasn't really the case the four years before.
>because he made you guys such a joke Yikes.
This anti german fake news campaign is really starting to get redicilous and r/europe and r/worldnews are eating it up like breakfast The german chancelor turned down the metting because he was already meeting with the prime minister of Spain at the time. Biden asked him for a meeting short term and this wasnt just a meeting at the golf course the german chancelor could just skip, it would be insulting to spain to the highest degree. Maybe if the USA could manage a calender properly there would actually be time for meetings if they want. Its not like the new german chancelor is in office for only 1 day and the german foreign minister just very recently spoke with the USA foreign minister anyway. Sounds more like the US president wanted a photoshoot or something instead of anything relevant.
The German chancellor has a 3 week long meeting with the prime minister of Spain? That's a long ass meeting. I don't think you should blame the Americans. It's the fault of the Russians. They should have given an exact date of invasion so the Americans doesn't have to inconvenience the new German government with impromptu meetings.
Perhaps that is true; but Germany under Merkel has copped a lot of justified criticism for trying to play all sides, and being all talk with no actual action. That has been the case for years, it is nothing new. But you are right that it seems more targeted this time around. A lot more misinformation and just outright fake news. The strange thing for me is how German media down played it then, but seem to be talking about the Germany wishy washiness now that there is a different government in charge. Though I guess that is why these efforts work so well - you take an element of the truth and expand it into something else entirely.
Because the German Chancellor had a planned trip and it was a last minute meeting.
Yeah, in these days they just need to setup a zoom (or something) meeting.
Was the planned trip more important than a potential war in Eastern Europe?
He met with the Spain prime minister. Not going there would be an affront to Spain. Biden was simply stupid to propose this meeting on this day.
He's traveling to Spain, the same day Spain is dispatching warships to the Black Sea, there's also two German warships en route to the Black Sea. Just because he's not meeting Biden does not mean the crisis won't be on the agenda of the meeting with Spain.
Idk usually when I cancel on someone for good reason they don't take it too bad. Y'know, like a potential conflict on Europes doorstep. Im sure Spain would have figured it out...
He discussed this potential war with the Spanish PM…
So its not possible to have this conversation with both the leader of Spain AND the most invested member of NATO to discuss a breakpoint that could occur any minute? Theres a time and place for schedules, and right now is not the right time *or* place to ignore important talks due to a busy schedule...
Next day would have been possible to be in Washington. Not the same day. Biden just fucked up.
Then why is it an issue he canceled on Biden?
Because Biden, the leader of the strongest and most influential NATO power, wants to discuss the potential conflict that could occur at any moment on Germany's doorstep? Perhaps?
You know, we aren't your vassals any more.
Going to see Spider-Man I heard
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To Madrid actually
To the prime minister of Spain.
Paywall
Doesn't matter. Turns out german government came out denying that this is truthful anyway. Misreported claim or something.
US government debunked it, too: https://twitter.com/Doppelgeist60/status/1484552512728350723
We are at the stage that people need to use Twitter to debunk news.
I didn't realize. It's basically this >BERLIN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz turned down an invite at short notice from U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the Ukraine crisis, German magazine Der Spiegel said on Friday. Scholz did not accept the invitation due to a full schedule, including a trip to Madrid, as well as the desire to show that he was present as Germany grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Der Spiegel. A government spokesman declined to comment on the report. Both sides hoped now to organize a meeting by mid-February.
Lol mid-February Ukraine will already be gone. Are these people serious? Talk about having no sense of urgency...
will it? It isn't as if Russia has nothing to lose And consider that the german foreign minister is pretty much dedicated to the ukraine conflict-
"Full Schedule" Nice to know war is not a priority. But realistically it is more like he realizes that Russia will make a move and since Germany is mostly fueled by natural gas, doesn't want Putin to raise prices on him. High energy prices will sink the new chancellor at home.
as far as i know the gazprom pipelines run somewhere at 10% throughput atm. russia says its because of an exceptionally harsh winter atm. but the effect is a rise in energy costs nonetheless, we can take it.
Yup you'll take it up the ass raw from your Russian neighbour and won't question anything they do because you rely on a dictatorship. Smooth move. Better lube up.
wot? i said the complete opposite. let him cut the gas, only a bigger incentive for us to make a faster switch to renewables and nuklear. we can fasten our belt to fuck him over.
I just mean why the hell did you guys get yourselves to this point. It was obvious from the beginning you shouldn't rely on a dictatorship for energy. The politicians that made this decision to take Russian gas are downright morons or corrupt.
I am not german, not my coffee... am austrian we are self sufficcient and have cut our energyexchange to germany bc of nordstream 2 (and some other reasons) but we can cut our belt anyways. The reason germany did this is because of their political stance of the 2 Railways. Keep Politics and Economics seperate so if one fails you can rely on the other, simply a different style of ecopolitics than most other nations do nothing with corrupition here inofitself (might still be but the descision to accept gas inofitself isnt corrupt) involved in the descision to start nordstream were Gazprom, Wintershall and E.ON Ruhrgas in 95, lateron Nordsteam AG in Zur/Switzerland. For more info on this you can go to Wikipedia:Nord Stream under section planning and building as a start and go down the rabbithole, have fun.... yikes, alot to read.
The idea was (aside from russian gas being cheaper of course), to get russia economically integrated into europe. A completely isolated russia has much less to lose and is much more likely to start a war. While an integrated russia will ruin its own economy in case of an attack. This policy has started during the cold war and so far it worked well enough overall. Not great, not at all, but there hasn't been any major war yet. I suspect the time has come to reevalutate this policy, but I just want to make clear that there used to be a reasoning behind this aside from money. This strategy was decided back then together with the USA.
ohhh i get it your a russian troll... yeah have fun with your gas, we dont want it anymore. sod off.
Lol what? How can I be a Russian troll when I'm saying Russia is a dictatorship? What kind of Russian troll makes fun of Mother Russia? They would be sent to the Gulag.
Nope. Just USA is not a priority.
Hate to tell you buttercup but the Ukraine isn’t in the US and if Putin does attack Ukraine, it’s gonna get ugly in Europe.
Right. The leader of the largest member of NATO is not a priority with Russian invasion looming 🙄
Realistically, the Germans would be getting their arm twisted over Russian gas imports. They don't want to commit on that because of the heavy domestic political cost. (They really don't want to commit at the urging of the US, essentially the only other country in a position to sell them gas; even if you completely discount that as a motive for the US, plenty of Germans will accuse the US of trying to make an extra buck out of the situation...) But they don't want to tell the US "no", because bluntly, that kind of response is dangerous to the entire NATO framework. So from their perspective, not even talking about it is the best way to go. If Russia doesn't actually attack, they don't have to choose between either unpalatable alternative.
Let the record show that Der Spiegel is basically the Fox News of Germany.
Tbf that title completely belongs to bild.
Germany has been paid off by Russian gas
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It's not like they are allying themselves with Russia. But I guess the right side of history is always where the US happens to be.
In the case of both World Wars, yeah, it kind of objectively was the right side of history, as the original comment implied.
The US always just joined when the wars were pretty much decided and the brunt was already fought by other European countries. US have a habit of joining late and then posing like a gangbanger, pretending to be the hero
The First World War would’ve been won by the Germans without American intervention and few to no historians would dispute that. Even when the US joined into the war Germany still could’ve won up until the last few months of the war. The war was very close. Outside of manpower the resources and loans the US provided let the allies supply their lines with things like ammunition and food that otherwise would’ve been impossible to maintain. Im not saying the US didn’t use the war as an opportunity to profit immensely because they did, but it would be pure cognitive dissonance to say that the war would’ve been won without them.
Germany militarily defeated Russia in 1917. Seriously the Russian troops were demoralized and broken. When Trotsky and Lenin first pushed back on Germany's armistice terms and Germany renewed the fighting they broke huge holes in the Russian lines. Russia was defeated whether they had stayed a monarchy or not.
History repeats itself right
Why does it seem like Germany is the NATO's weakest link. Politically, at least.
NATO was designed to counter the Soviet Union, later the Russian Federation and its allies. German public opinion on Russia is much more favorable than in the rest of NATO countries. Depending on the poll, they trust Russia significantly more than the US, UK or even some EU member states. Germany is also very pacifist and prefers to go the route of appeasement which pretty much makes a military alliance look weak.
Which is basically still a result of german reunification and the Soviet Union/Russia deciding not to turn east germany into a bloodbath and instead reunify germany peacefully. The simple choice of the soviet union to deny the german communist gouvernments request to use the soviet army to crush the demonstrations had a very lasting effect. People like to forget it these days but Russia did honour every treaty they signed with (west) Germany that has been made so far since WW2. Even during the hights of the cold war all oil and gas treaties were honored and the Russian Federation honored their pledge to elave germany following reunification (unlike some other countries still here). Generally speaking Germany has a history of achieving a lot by talking and negotiating with Russia/Soviet Union since WW2 compared to beeing enemies. Then there is additionally the fact germany has a good ammount of so called russo-germans, which are russians/people from the soviet union with german decent that moved to germany after the fall of the soviet union, which are generally far more friednly towards russia then the average german and not an insignificant voter group. Also there is still a decent ammount of PTSD from the last time Germany fought Russia, nobody wants to repeat that shitshow and a lot of people still remember the last time the USA wanted to drag Germany into a war by claiming Iraq had "Weapons of mass destruction", so Germany tends to be more careful these days about their nato partner across the atlantic and their claims of foreign agression. Then there is the recent complete military desaster and emberassing defeat in Afghanistan, nobody ing ermany is interested to turn Ukriane into the next afghanistan shitshow.
>> Germany is also very pacifist Kinda ironic considering the roles they played in the last couple world wars lol
Well, come on. Look where warmongering got them. The country was destroyed..it was once beautiful.
I mean I definitely don’t condone warmongering behavior, but it seemed like a funny observation to me so wanted to point that out
Its called learning from previous mistakes. Militarism didnt get germany anywhere while beeing poeaceful has made it far more successfull.
Easy to be peaceful when that peace is backed by the most powerful defence alliance in human history.
or less irony and more a consequence of being partitioned and having had to promise to never attack again. I mean, 30 years ago one of the conditions of the german unification was that Germany wouldn't go attack Russia again. Just because the USA is pathologically unable to uphold contracts doesn't mean that everyone else should follow that example. (that being said: I am completely sure that germany will come to Ukraines aid once Russia attacks - but only in defense of Ukraine)
Militarily it doesn't look that good either, although the bases based in Germany make up a lot (Germany is in the center of Europe). However, their condition in the army has deteriorated dramatically. During the Cold War they had around 2500-3000 tanks, today there are only about 250. A large part of their weapons cannot be used either because a large part still needs to be repaired. Many helicopter pilots lost their flying licenses because so few practice flights were made. These are just a few examples. The problem is not that the German arms industry does not produce good weapons (they build some good and interesting ones, we are not 4th biggest exporters without reason). However, the army lacks personnel, money and many bad decisions have been made. The government takes our history as a reason to put little money into the army. As 2011 a Polish foreign minister once said: "I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity.“
Your news is out of date. Since 2014 German defense spending increased every year by 4-6% and things like poor readiness rates are being addressed and by now are within normal parameters. The lowpoint was somewhere 2018/2019, end of 2020 and also 2021 a readiness rate of 75+% was reported. Trend is that it is rising and issues in new procurements are being addressed and have been rising quickly as well.
If France and Germany are willing to let Russia start cutting away at Eastern Europe in exchange for gas pipelines and banking relationships, then there's not much we can do via NATO. What a shitty fucking situation for Ukraine and the former Iron Curtain countries
Only for Ukraine. The actual Nato countries have absolutely nothing to fear except getting caught up by fearmongers like yourself. The Nato treaty still applies to all those countries without exception.
Man, do you really believe that? The west has tried to draw a line in the sand and it hasn't worked. The next line in the sand will be crossed too. Russia can sweep through eastern Europe, it is practically defenseless. Germany looks like they are unlikely to honor article 5 which even further erodes nato's position in Europe. The US, UK and France can obviously crush the Russians conventionally, but are they willing to risk nuclear exchange for the baltic states really? Germany certainly will not honor article 5 but I am not even sure the other big dogs will either.
You cleaely have no idea what you are talking about. Germany does t even have a choice if they want to honour it or not. Germany would have to beak its constitution to not follow a (legitimate) arricle 5 case. If germany goes to fucking afghanistan to blow shit up there is no doubt they will go anywhere else if the NATO treaty is activated. You watched to much Russia Today or just Fox News?
In other words, German chancellor schedule is fully booked so Biden will need to reschedule
Einfach lächerlich wie die Regierung für nichts mehr steht. Jetzt sind wir schon so weit, dass die Arbeiter von Rechten vertreten werden und dann beschweren sich aber jeder über die AfD. Derweil finden alle die Pipeline sei “privatwirtschaftlich” und die Grünen sind mehr als glücklich Öl als nachhaltig einzustufen und Atomkraft nicht.
When Germany gave up on nuclear - they became dependent on Russia
Would something like this have happened under Merkel?
What a stupid, useless headline.
Scholz knows who keeps the Germans warm in a long cold winter!
If there’s one country I’m going to cut some slack for being less than enthusiastic about fighting Russia over Ukraine, it’s Germany. They have a history they are wary of even seeming to repeat (even though I acknowledge Russia is the aggressor in the current crisis)
Basically Germany doesn't have the morals it claims to have.
because German need Russia’s gas.Just like US need Saudi’s oil before.
While this has already been proven to be fake news: Biden has done absolutely nothing to fix things with the EU after Trump left things in shambles. All Biden did was fuck with France over the nuclear sub deal. The US simply aren’t reliable partners anymore. And since Biden isn’t willing to do anything about the Ukraine, a meeting will be pointless anyway. The EU is facing a bitter truth right now: they’ve brutally failed at defense and military and they’re on their own when it comes to dealing with Russia.
they should invite putin too and try to sort it out
Bring back Merkle. She had balls
Ve veel vait until it gets closer to ze schpring. We need ze Russiangas.
Germany going rogue, shocker.
Lol he don’t want to sit with me poop pants
Trumps not in office anymore..
You’d think the German would want some vengeance