What's Happening in Germany isn't Good for Ukraine

Deutsche Welle, Germany's State-run international television channel, has released a documentary and a debate signalling weakening support for Ukraine.

This morning, watching Germany’s official broadcaster, I was reminded of the Scorpions, in 1991, singing the funeral song for the Cold War.

“I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park,
listening to the wind of change
An August summer night, soldiers passing by,
listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in,
and did you ever think
that we could be so close like brothers?
The future's in the air, I can feel it everywhere,
I'm blowing with the wind of change…”

‘Winds of Change’ resonated hopefully amongst us Whities in South Africa. It also climbed high in the UK and US charts. However, the Scorpions were mostly talking about the end of enmity between Germany and Russia and, retrospectively, the song became associated with the 1989 falling of the Berlin Wall and the unification of West and East Germany.

It’s a different kind of falling this time, Germany twisting and turning to try not land on its own sword.

GERMANY & USA TURNING THEIR BACK ON UKRAINE

The German economy is suffering because its politicians catered to the demands of the USA instead of its people. Conservatives and right-wingers are gaining in popularity, shaking the ruling coalition. The Public is beginning to tear off the blinders of propaganda, and they'll be colder and poorer and angrier when they complete that process.

Across the Atlantic, a warning shot was fired by U.S. Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz whose motion to remove the Speaker was surprisingly successful and historic.

There’ll be more twists and turns there, because corporate profits don’t die easily, but Americans are slowly tiring of the Ukraine War. Their pockets are emptying whilst large, unaccountable sums of money flow to the war machine and people they mostly don’t know or care about beyond virtue signalling.

Compare substantially increasing American debt (thanks Trygve) to the dwindling money to Ukraine graph (thanks Simplicius).

The USA has been in Ukraine for 9 years. Almost 2 years of war exists only because of their taxpayers’ money and weapons. Despite this, most Americans probably can't locate the Black Sea on a map let alone Ukraine (or Transnistria and Belarus).

Despite the initial excitement over white refugees, they’ll move on as they did for Syria and Iraq.

Ukraine knows its screwed.

UKRAINE KNOWS ITS SCREWED

Zelensky was irritated during Biden’s recent speech because he knew that old man was farting not promising, and that he, like Germany, was being betrayed (as was predicted long ago by many people who have followed the USA’s modern imperial policy via the petrodollar and the weapons industry - the USA is only an ally to its own corporate capitalism, power and ego).

It’s thus inevitable that Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany's State-run international television channel, interviews someone like Maksim, a young male Ukrainian who logically states his reasons why he’ll not go to war for his country.

"I think that having your own country is much more valuable than being a refugee somewhere. But the price they are asked to pay, disability or death, is higher than the value of having a country. I would rather be a refugee than die... and there's no guarantee that the country will exist after my death."

DW then challenges Lisa Yasko, a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, whose response must be heard (yes, I’m trying to make you watch what seems like a pivoting foreign policy and relations moment).

Whilst it confirms the terrible situation Ukraine’s soldiers are facing, I felt sympathy for Yasko’s impossible position. We cannot criticise war into simplicity.

THE WINDS OF CHANGE

The existence of that short documentary, released yesterday, signals that Germany’s cheerleader attitude to Ukraine is also waning, and that it needs to set a mood whereby it can excuse itself from not sending more weapons (instead of delaying them as it’s done since the beginning of the war).

DW emphasised that the same day, releasing a debate framed as ‘A Great Power in Trouble: What's Wrong with Germany?’

“What's happening to the world's fourth-largest economy? In contrast to other large industrial nations, and in comparison to Europe, Germany’s economy is weakening. Companies are complaining about poor business conditions, such as high energy prices. There is already talk of creeping de-industrialization, and some economists and politicians believe that Germany is once again, ‘the sick man of Europe’. At the same time, right-wing populist attitudes are on the rise, and more people are critical of democracy. Are prosperity and democracy in danger?”

It’s less debate and more agreement that Germany’s troubled.

IT’S ONE MORE STEP TOWARDS PEACE…

War propaganda is losing its power.

Half a million Ukrainian soldiers will be dead before this year finishes.

Russia, whilst preserving its troops, has gained more territory than Ukraine during the latter’s counteroffensive.

Rain and the world’s worst mud will arrive this month, further damaging Ukrainians trench-deep morale as missiles and drones takeover. It cannot be comforting to be in the line of fire whilst fully aware that Russia’s military production is at record levels.

I titled this opinion ‘What's Happening in Germany isn't Good for Ukraine’ but the opposite is also true. The good news is in between bloodthirsty politicians, the stupid and greedy, the limbless and the dead - we’re another step closer to this war ending.