“Hard Awakening”
Strack-Zimmermann expects determination
03/27/2022 11:06 am
According to Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the chairwoman of the defense committee, the war in the Ukraine was a “hard awakening” for Germany in particular. Being able to defend yourself also means defending your own values.
The chairwoman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, is calling for significantly more determination in security policy in response to the Ukraine war. “Defensiveness, willingness to defend yourself, military capability are interdependent. If I make a country fit for military action, i.e. equip the Bundeswehr accordingly, there must also be the will to defend the country in an emergency,” said the FDP politician. “Are we mentally in a position to do that? This discussion will reach Germany,” she says. And: “I wish for a federal government that articulates this openly, even if 5 million out of 82 million German citizens hold their breath in the short term. They will get their act together.” The Russian war of aggression and the associated threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin against NATO countries are “a very hard awakening for Europe and especially for us”. “We just have to know that a certain reaction is required. And we’ve lost it. Words like ‘We’re fighting for freedom’ are just empty phrases,” she says.
Europe is now in a phase in which such fundamental questions are at stake. This is a war of the systems. The question is whether a despot who has left every form of civilized coexistence and is shooting at hospitals can prevail. “We find it incredibly difficult to deal with this breach of civilization, because not only did we all believe that such a breach of civilization would never happen again, but also because we cannot and, above all, do not want to respond adequately,” says Strack-Zimmermann.
“The question now is, do we accept this dramatic challenge, because now it’s about the fundamentals, about democracy and freedom,” says the FDP woman. “Germany must finally stop tolerating intolerance. Anyone who tolerates intolerance will sooner or later destroy our canon of values and with them ourselves.”
This is a no go
Of course you have to negotiate and keep trying to get along peacefully. “But I think the policy of appeasement, that is, a policy of constant tolerance for destructive power politics, has completely failed,” she says. “I don’t believe in it, neither in terms of internal security nor in terms of external security. There are people and governments who only know clear announcements. Only those who are strong will not be attacked.”
Questions as to whether arms deliveries to Ukraine would in some way prolong the war are cynical for people in Ukraine. To endure an attack and not fight back, so that the war would end and more survive, would mean that the brutal attacker would always prevail. “That’s exactly why the right to self-defense is enshrined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. All despots, all Putins in the world, must be aware that their lust for power comes at a high price,” she says. Only Ukraine can decide whether Putin can be offered a way out with concessions in view of his military difficulties and the effect of the sanctions. “I think it’s out of the question, even out of place, that we’re discussing what could be offered to Putin so that there would be calm. That’s a no-go.”
A new chapter will be opened for the Bundeswehr with the special fund of over 100 billion euros announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and increases in the defense budget. “The Europeans and also NATO rubbed their eyes – in disbelief or with enthusiasm. It also led to other countries considering whether they should increase their defense budget again.” For the NATO members, Scholz’s statement was a huge bang. Germany is more of a role model “than we think and possibly want to be.”
In Germany, it is important to always organize civil defense and infrastructure protection along with defense. Sirens and shelters have been removed, high-rise bunkers have been converted into luxury apartments. “If the heating stays cold on Friday, it’s freezing outside, the electricity is gone and all forms of communication are cut off, then even the most phlegmatic fellow citizen will have his nerves on Monday morning and grab everything in the nearest supermarket.”
Strack-Zimmermann said she was very, very grateful to the US for now standing by Europe’s side. Germany must take a critical look at its own politics. “Change through trade, this form of foreign policy, which Chancellor Angela Merkel pursued very strongly towards Russia and also China – was, in retrospect, naïve, even naïve,” said Strack-Zimmermann. Merkel will have done this out of inner conviction, not so much as an end in itself, but in her opinion to avert damage from the German people. “And yet, with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the historical context of her achievements as chancellor will be greatly altered, if not ruined.”