By discovering the message posted by the German general Alfons But on the social network LinkedIn, Thursday, February 24, some believed that his account had been hacked. First, because of the rather unexpected introduction from one of the highest ranking officers of the Bundeswehr: “You wake up in the morning and find that there is war in Europe. »
But especially because of the following: “In forty-one years of peacetime service, I never thought I would experience another war. However, the Bundeswehr, the army that I lead, is more or less dry. The options we can offer politicians to support the Alliance [atlantique] are extremely limited. This we all saw coming, but we could not make our case or learn the lessons of the annexation of Crimea [par la Russie, en 2014]. I’m mad ! »
The message was not a “fake”. Just three hours after Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” in Ukraine, the chief of staff of the German army did make this terrible admission. A little later, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Angela Merkel’s last defense minister (2019-2021), followed suit on Twitter: “I’m furious with us because we failed in the face of history. After Georgia [en 2008] then Crimea and Donbass [en 2014], we did nothing to deter Putin. We forgot the lesson [des chanceliers] Schmidt and Kohl, namely that we must always begin by negotiating, but that we must be strong enough militarily so that non-negotiation is not an option for the opposing party. »
Without disavowing their authors by name, the Minister of Defense, Christine Lambrecht, endeavored to deliver a more reassuring message. “Our allies can count on us. This cannot be questioned.”she said on Thursday, before making several announcements along the same lines: the strengthening of the German presence on the eastern flank of NATO.
“A scandal for one of the richest countries in the world”
Among the decisions taken by Berlin: the departure on Saturday of a reconnaissance ship in the Baltic Sea; the installation of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles in Eastern Europe; participation in the training of a battlegroup (“infantry battalion”) in Slovakia; sending “by the end of March” of three Eurofighter combat aircraft in Romania (in addition to the three which arrived there in mid-February) or even the deployment of 350 soldiers to reinforce the 550 already present within the framework of the NATO mission that Germany is commanding in Lithuania.
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