Putin delighted with German pacifism

Margot Käßmann is the former head of the Evangelical (Protestant) Church in Germany and today sees herself as the nation's moral conscience.   In a recent interview in Der Spiegel, Käßmann expressed alarm about the view that Germany should play a more robust role on the world stage - even if that calls for some sort of military intervention:

 "Ich fände es gut, wenn die Bundesrepublik auf eine Armee verzichten könnte wie etwa Costa Rica.... "Es steht Deutschland gut an zu sagen: Wir exportieren Frieden und nicht Rüstung."

(I would be happy if Germany could do without an army, just like Costa Rica...It would be good if Germany says: we export peace, not armaments.)

And her extreme pacifism is hardly an outlier in Germany today.  When President Joachim Gauck - a former Protestant minister - said in a speech that Germany must live up to its obligations under NATO he was denounced as a "repulsive warmonger."  Germany's largest opposition party in the Bundestag = Die LINKE (The Left Party)- has unconditional pacifism as a component of its platform.

Yesterday, the left-leaning blogger and author Jens Berger published a piece urging people to stop reading Der Spiegel (Bye Bye Spiegel) since the magazine has repeatedly warned against the threat posed by Putin's Russia.  In particular, Berger took offense that a recent Spiegel cover had the headline "Stoppt Putin Jetzt!"  ("Stop Putin Now!").  Berger is full agreement with fellow leftist and Spiegel columnist Jokob Augstein who urged Germany recently to "Appease Putin Now!". 

All of this lofty rhetoric about Germany's commitment to peace is music to the ears of Vladimir Putin, who is now orchestrating an invasion of Eastern Ukraine - part of Europe. To Putin, Germany is just about as effective as Costa Rica in countering Russia's design on the Ukraine.  After all, Crimea was handed to him on a silver platter - with the support - even jubiliation - of the German left.

Margot Käßmann would do well to study the example of the greatest protestant theologian of the 20th century - Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer recognized the limits of pacifism in the face of Nazi power and decided to act.

Comments

[koogleschreiber]

Putin can't be stopped, that's the problem. He won't care about Russia's economy, if it runs bad people will blame the west and not him. On the other side, we in the west care a lot. How can we punish him without punishing ourselves? Plus, we have no military options.

You mention the limits of pacifism, but there also limits of bellicism. Imagine Hitler had the A-bomb. Would France and Great Britain have given guarantees for Poland's territorial integrity? A bad example, perhaps, because the situation is more like early than late 1939, like the smashing of the remainder of Czechia.

Are we ready for a new cold war? The Middle East could be a nice replacement battlefield to avoid our own territories. Maybe IS is the bigger thread anyway...

[Zyme]

Spheres of influence are being reshaped in Eastern Europe. If we Germans seek to hold ours we have to counter Russian moves decisively.

No military options? Couldn't we deliver plenty of military equipment to Ukraine so that they can put it to good use?

And as a neat side-effect we could then restock our own military with state of the art equipment to replace what has been given away.

[Hattie]

I can't believe anyone thinks it's a good idea for Germany to get involved in that conflict. Or the U.S. either.

[David]

So the west should hand over all of Ukraine,like we did with Crimea? Why not give Russia all of the Baltic countries as well, so Putin can bring all the ethnic Russians "Heim ins Reich"?

I urge you to read Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands". History is repeating itself.