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The spoils of Olaf's Panzorama [1]

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Date: 2023-01-19

Soooo.. hold these two possibilities in your mind at the same time and consider which you find more likely: that the German government blocks the delivery of Leopards to Ukraine at tomorrow’s Ramstein conference, when its sole stated precondition for sending tanks to Ukraine of acting only in accord with its allies and presenting a united front of Ukraine’s supporters has been met, and does so at a conference in Germany, at a place that by now maybe more than any symbolises transatlantic military cooperation, potentially delivering Olaf Scholz the kind of home front photo-op that he clearly craves, allowing him to project the sort of Merkelian image of leadership by consensus building that validates his overconcerned approach as stewardship of the slow but inevitable process of finding agreement amongst nations making common cause, harkening back to Germany’s arguably more or less benign but clearly central role in European politics of the recent past, and ultimately producing an image printed in future history textbooks as the moment that changed the war in Ukraine, the moment that Germany redeemed itself and sent the tanks.

And that therefore the voiced concerns and admonitions of Germany’s allies are entirely genuine, the European governments announcing their aid before the Ramstein meeting only meant to shame Germany into allowing the export of Leopards, are in no way motivated by headline hunting of who announces what when for home consumption, by no means designed to prevent the news of individual contributions to be buried by the big one, and most certainly not designed to spoil Scholz’s big day.

Or: that everybody knows what’s up, has known at least since tomorrow’s conference was announced and is now milking it for what it’s worth.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/19/2148195/-The-spoils-of-Olaf-s-Panzorama

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