The cheetah is the world’s fastest animal and can reach a speed of up to 70 miles an hour. If Germany’s Gepard (“Cheetah”) anti-aircraft tanks had traveled at that pace, they would have finished the 1,100-mile journey to Ukraine in about 16 hours. Instead it took three months for the first three Gepards to arrive in Ukraine on Monday, after Berlin said in April it would send them.
What a disgrace for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the global stage, and what a political embarrassment at home. Even Berlin’s announcement of this military aid came two months into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Scholz’s main strategy, if that’s what it is, has been to delay the tanks and other heavy weapons, presumably in the hope that a negotiated settlement at some point would make them moot.
Frustrated Ukrainians, Germans and NATO allies have been treated to a range of German government excuses for the slow-roll. Berlin has fretted that Germany didn’t have equipment to send without diminishing its own military readiness, or that the Ukrainians wouldn’t know how to use German weapons, or even that providing heavy weapons would provoke a Russian nuclear attack. None of that has stopped others, including more vulnerable Poland and the Baltic states, from sending weapons.
The good news is that Mr. Scholz at least finds himself increasingly isolated within his own administration on arming Ukraine. Leaders of the Green Party, part of the coalition government with Mr. Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), have demanded accelerated arms shipments for months.
The third coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), agrees. Over the weekend Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the FDP chairwoman of the parliament’s defense committee, called for Mr. Scholz to scrap the complicated “circular exchange” whereby Germany sends new weapons to Eastern NATO members so they can send their older weapons to Ukraine.
Mr. Scholz’s initial response to the Ukraine invasion was exactly correct. He said in February that Europe is under threat and Germany must rearm to help its allies and deter Vladimir Putin. But it’s hard to separate that declared resolve from his timidity on military aid to Ukraine. Allies and the Kremlin are watching Berlin’s actions closely, and it would help Mr. Scholz’s credibility if the next batch of Cheetahs move less like turtles.
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The cheetah is the world’s fastest animal and can reach a speed of up to 70 miles an hour. If Germany’s Gepard (“Cheetah”) anti-aircraft tanks had traveled at that pace, they would have finished the 1,100-mile journey to Ukraine in about 16 hours. Instead it took three months for the first three Gepards to arrive in Ukraine on Monday, after Berlin said in April it would send them.
What a disgrace for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the global stage, and what a political embarrassment at home. Even Berlin’s announcement of this military aid came two months into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Scholz’s main strategy, if that’s what it is, has been to delay the tanks and other heavy weapons, presumably in the hope that a negotiated settlement at some point would make them moot.
Frustrated Ukrainians, Germans and NATO allies have been treated to a range of German government excuses for the slow-roll. Berlin has fretted that Germany didn’t have equipment to send without diminishing its own military readiness, or that the Ukrainians wouldn’t know how to use German weapons, or even that providing heavy weapons would provoke a Russian nuclear attack. None of that has stopped others, including more vulnerable Poland and the Baltic states, from sending weapons.
The good news is that Mr. Scholz at least finds himself increasingly isolated within his own administration on arming Ukraine. Leaders of the Green Party, part of the coalition government with Mr. Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), have demanded accelerated arms shipments for months.
The third coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), agrees. Over the weekend Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the FDP chairwoman of the parliament’s defense committee, called for Mr. Scholz to scrap the complicated “circular exchange” whereby Germany sends new weapons to Eastern NATO members so they can send their older weapons to Ukraine.
Mr. Scholz’s initial response to the Ukraine invasion was exactly correct. He said in February that Europe is under threat and Germany must rearm to help its allies and deter Vladimir Putin. But it’s hard to separate that declared resolve from his timidity on military aid to Ukraine. Allies and the Kremlin are watching Berlin’s actions closely, and it would help Mr. Scholz’s credibility if the next batch of Cheetahs move less like turtles.
‘Tank’ 🤣 great article
Three tanks huh.
Tank you Germany. Tank you very much.
I don’t think these are “tanks”, they are anti-aircraft weapons. According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank):
>A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat.
and these bad boys aren’t intended as a primary offensive weapon, you could argue they are a defensive weapon system.
Great news, by the way, the Ukranians need to take back their sky.
Thank you Germany and Germans for your continued support.
ITT: Germans continue to be completely unable to handle criticism about their country’s policies.
In other news, the Sun is still fusing hydrogen.