” We are at an existential milestone for our freedom and security” , , declared German Foreign Minister , Annalena , Baerbock, who demanded European involvement in the Ukraine peace talks initiated this week by Presidents Trump and Putin.
Better said, it is an existential time for Baerbock’s Green Party, the most intense conflict hawks on the German political range. Despite the Greens ‘ enthusiasm for the Ukraine War, only , 9 % of its members , told German pollsters that they would fight to defend their country.  ,
Europe’s war eagles don’t want to spend and don’t want to struggle. Their sense of entitlement derives from their status as customers of the Washington foreign , and security , policy establishment, which paid billions of dollars a year through USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy , ( NED), and prominent private foundations to keep complaisant Germans on the payroll.  ,
” Brutally hard Americans shock Europe”, reads the headline in today’s” Berlin Playbook” newsletter by , the German Springer Verlag-owned , Politico,  , the recipient of$ 8 million a year in US government subsidies, according to a , White House spokesperson.
Die Welt’s Jacques Schuster, writer, reported February 13 that the shock extends far beyond the peace negotiations in Ukraine, which left the Europeans “relegated to the family’s table.”  ,
President Donald Trump pulled that lock after years of warning that the United States could not and would not be able to defend Europe continuously.  , Trump , on , February 13 proposed a new global security alliance with Russia and China that may help the United States to reduce its military expenditure in half.
” At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost$ 1 trillion on the military … and I’m going to say we can spend this on other things”, Trump said.
Europe will have to see to its own defence.  , The only major political party with a clear defense strategy is Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland , ( AfD ), the scrappy populist , contender that filled the vacuum , on the conservative spectrum after Angela Merkel , moved her Christian Democrats toward the left.
Merkel suspended , compulsory , military support for all men 18 years or older in 2011 , and , later , allied her gathering with the , Social Democrats , and adopted green , anti-nuclear , strength guidelines.
In a , December 22, 2024, research,  , we , noted that the , AfD , is the only European party proposing a , comprehensive , restoration of , military recruitment. The , AfD’s , gathering system states:
Military support is virtuous services. It should not be understood as a violation of a citizen’s fundamental right initially, but as a civic duty to defend peace and security and ensure the stability of our nation’s politics. The federal troops should be established within society, and the end of conscription has significantly damaged this relationship in recent months.
At the , AfD’s , group agreement January 12 in the city of Riesa in the state of Saxony, its co-chair Tino , Chrupalla , proposed to eliminate recruitment from the group’s electoral , campaign , system. More than 70 % of the 600 members voted to keep recruitment at the vanguard of the battle, outvoting , the , AfD’s , second-highest standard.
AfD , Bundestag part Jan-Wenzel Schmidt, a head of the group in the European state of Saxony-Anhalt, told Asia Times,” The , AfD , advocates the , full , resumption of recruitment. National support for , Germany offers younger people the opportunity for private development while making a , valuable , commitment to their country. Most importantly, it , is essential for rebuilding Germany ‘s , defense capabilities” . ,
He added,” It is , critical , for Germany to become more independent from its alliance partners. The Bundeswehr]German armed forces ] must be , ready,  , if , required,  , of defending Germany freely.
” This requires the acquisition of present defence equipment and the expansion of our own defense production , of which European industry is highly competent, “he continued”. The , AfD , is strongly committed to NATO account, provided that the empire pieces  , to its , function as a defensive alliance and does not work as a global , offender.”
No one will fight and die for” Europe,” the abstract global government sitting in Brussels.  , But revolutionaries may fight for their country, the source of their personality and the , vehicle for its distribution to future generations.  ,
The , AfD’s , devotion to a large , citizen , army , has profound strategic implications. Under Angela Merkel and , her son, Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Bundeswehr atrophied to the point that it cannot area a second combat-ready section.
Germany’s defence strategy is one of clinging to the American radioactive overcoat while doing nothing.  , That is an essentially unstable and unsafe state of affairs. Every crisis is sanitized by the lack of regular forces, which propels it further up the nuclear escalation ladder.  ,
Helmut Schmidt clearly recognized this danger that , ( West )  , Germany would become a nuclear battleground ( and cemetery, as German soldiers , darkly , put it in the 1970s )  , when he served as defense minister ( 1969-1972 ) under Chancellor Willy Brandt , and acted on when he became chancellor himself in 1974 ( serving in that position until 1982 ).
Called Schmidt-the-Lip (” Schmidt-Schnauze” ) by his countrymen,  , he defined military (or , theater ) nuclear arms as” nuclear arms that go off in Germany.”
He set out to regain reliable proper equilibrium in Europe, in particular, after , the Russian deployment of the MIRVed SS-20 smart IRBM in 1976.
Under Schmidt ‘s , leadership, the Bundeswehr grew to its maximum personnel strength of 495, 875 by the end of 1982. The army fielded 38 brigades, deployed over 7, 000 tanks and was judged ( even by American observers ) the world’s best standing fighting force. NATO’s 1979 decision, prompted by Schmidt, to deploy 108 Pershing , II IRBM launchers in Europe led to equalization of the in-theatre , nuclear balance.
And yet,  , in 1983, the world came perilously close to nuclear war during the NATO” Able Archer “exercises. By involving UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, NATO tried to make the exercises hyper-realistic, convincing the Russians that the exercise showed a NATO first strike against the Warsaw Pact.
In response,  , the Soviets readied their forces, including their nuclear forces, and potential disaster was only avoided when NATO headquarters realized the Soviet countermobilization was real , and called the whole exercise off.
After the near-disaster, Germany  , continued to , build , up , and modernize its , conventional forces,  , a process that only came to a halt after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union.  ,
Talk of a peace dividend was reasonable, and it would have made sense to downsize the unified Germany.
What made no sense,  , and now condemns , Germany  , to impotence in the current security situation in Europe,  , was a series of mindless government decisions driven by narrow budget considerations , of , the , Social Democrat-Green , ruling , coalitions under Gerhard Schroeder ( 1998 – 2005 ) and the , Christian Democratic-Social Democratic and Christian Democratic-Liberal , coalitions headed by Angela Markel.
Those successive governments , let the , Bundeswehr , fall into utter disrepair, its personnel reduced to just 180, 000 ( and falling ) at present.
Trump wants a less militarized security system. The key to achieving this goal , is a robust German conventional force. That isn’t merely a matter of budget allocation, but of a national commitment to defense. The , AfD’s , proposal to revive the citizen army that Germany had in the closing years of the Cold War dovetails with Trump’s strategic vision.