Sekalaisia huomioita turvallisuuspolitiikasta

[Heinrich]

Ruotsi ei taaskaan yllätä: "kaikkein pyhimpään" eli Ruotsin puolustusvoimien alainen tiedustelu- ja turvallisuuspalveluun KSI:hin, päässyt myyrä oli iranilaistaustainen mies ja hänen veljensä:

Tällaista oli Venäjälle vakoilusta syytettyjen ruotsalaisveljesten elämä: salapiiloja vessoissa, pakoreittimuistiinpanoja...

Jutun oikeuskäsittely alkaa torstaina.

www.is.fi

Iranilaistaustaisten velikultien hupia GRU:lle kesti KYMMENEN VUOTTA. Pikkuveli hoiti yhteydet Venäjään ja isoveli teki "nousujohteista uraa". Isoveljellä oli Aftonbladetin mukaan pääsy esimerkiksi listaan, joka sisälsi kaikkien Ruotsin turvallisuuspoliisi Säpon työntekijöiden nimet.

 

[magitsu]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1650784511758594048

 

[magitsu]

Saksalaisille sankaruus on vaikea ajatus sovitettavaksi sotilasmaailmaan. Tutkija (Jacob Ross is a research fellow with a focus on Franco-German relations at the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for Future European Studies) vertailee Saksaa suhteessa Ranskaan tältä osin.
Ranskalaiset tiivistetään itsevarmoiksi ja saksalaisista paistaa itsekritiikki.

A senior German officer says, half-jokingly, that German Saint-Cyrians (Ranskan sotakorkeakoulu) must be "rehabilitated" upon return to Germany.

Many German soldiers in France are becoming very clearly aware of how unique the German approach to everything military is. The fact that the French Grande Uniforme has to be earned in a solemn ceremony, for example, stands in stark contrast to the Bundeswehr's efforts to keep training free of any pathos.

Suosittelen!

Are citizens in uniform good as heroes?
The war in Ukraine forces Germany to use military force. The debate on the relationship between Germans and their soldiers has so far been neglected. A cultural comparison between Germany and France.

An ARD film recently asked: "Can we war?". General Ben Hodges, longtime commander-in-chief of US forces in Europe, denied this in the contribution, which brought together voices from home and abroad on the effects of the Russian attack on Ukraine on the German armed forces. Facilities are available, says Hodges, and he has worked with excellent German soldiers. But Germany lacks the appropriate culture. "They don't have that yet."

Germany's culture in dealing with the armed forces and war not only differs from that in the USA, as a comparison with Germany's most important European ally, France, shows. There, too, the Russian attack shattered many certainties. President Macron's Russia policy failed, and the military leadership was surprised by the scale of the attack. She openly questioned whether French forces could withstand comparable attacks. While Germany “woke up to another world” (Annalena Baerbock) on February 24, 2022, neither France nor the United States needed to wake up to realize that military violence remains part of the political realities on the European continent in the 21st century.

Analyst Michael Shurkin recently pointed out this crucial difference: Asked what distinguishes French soldiers in the eyes of their US allies, he replied: "Unlike the Germans, the French have preserved the use of military force in their political culture: You can kill and be killed.” One of the most prominent voices in the French debate on the Ukraine war, Colonel Michel Goya, shared his own experiences in a book entitled “Under Fire. Death as a Working Hypothesis”. There are no comparable commentators in Germany. The political scientist Herfried Münkler described this difference in his 2015 observations on “post-heroic” German society. And since the renewed Russian attack on Ukraine, this German peculiarity has received new attention abroad.

Confident French

Nowhere is the difference between Germany and its allies clearer than in Franco-German cooperation. Both countries have been working closely together for decades. In 1989, the year the Wall fell, a binational brigade was created. Hundreds of officers get to know the partner country year after year and are intended to contribute to the development of a "common strategic culture". It is no secret that the cultures of the neighboring countries are very different and that soldiers in Germany and France do not have the same social status. A Bundeswehr flyer advertising training at the French army officers' school in Saint-Cyr requires applicants to be "interested in a foreign culture" and "willing to integrate as much as possible". Year after year, young German officers grapple with the question of what “as far as possible” means.

Because France's military is firmly anchored in society and radiates a self-confidence that has grown over time. There is no break comparable to that of National Socialism in Germany. On the contrary: the founding myth of the Fifth French Republic is based on the narrative that the capitulation and collaboration of the Vichy regime were anomalies in French history. The tradition of French soldiers is therefore unbroken and extends far beyond republican-democratic history. Many do not primarily serve the republic, but their fatherland - a significant difference in self-image and decisive for the relationship to the civil state apparatus. With Charles de Gaulle, the first president of the Fifth Republic was also a general who swapped his suit for his uniform in crises like the Algerian war. France has never had a critical understanding of history or a coming to terms with the past like in Germany.

The training in Saint-Cyr puts the self-confidence of the German “citizens in uniform” to the test. The unreflective view of many French soldiers on history, the pathos and hero worship in training - all of this must have struck German officers who were trained during school and military training to deal critically with their own past. They find it difficult to deal with terms such as courage, honor, patriotism and discussions about the character traits of an officer, also in contrast to civil society. A senior German officer says, half-jokingly, that German Saint-Cyrians must be "rehabilitated" upon return to Germany.

Self-critical Germans

The confrontation with the image of the French officer can be reassurance and a source of pride in one's own values and principles such as the inner leadership. But it can also cause these values to falter in the long term and fuel doubts about one's own image of a soldier. Many German soldiers decide to train in Saint Cyr because they are fascinated by France's "grown military tradition" and, in addition to the high-quality military training, they are probably also attracted by the elitist attitude of French officers and traditional ceremonies during training. When German officer cadets were accepted into Saint Cyr for the first time in 2009, one of them said of the so-called Grande Uniforme that he wore on the occasion that "you have to earn it".

Many German soldiers in France are becoming very clearly aware of how unique the German approach to everything military is. The fact that the French Grande Uniforme has to be earned in a solemn ceremony, for example, stands in stark contrast to the Bundeswehr's efforts to keep training free of any pathos. A German officer contrasts his experiences in Saint Cyr with the distribution of uniforms in the clothing store of the Bundeswehr and compares the latter in its sobriety and arbitrariness with a "supermarket checkout".

Differences in dealing with songs become clear to German soldiers at the latest during the ceremony to commemorate the fallen of World War I, when they sing "Verdun La Victorieuse" together with French comrades, an anti-German song: "Flee, barbarians and lackeys. This is the gate of France and you will never pass through it”.

Place in Society

Not only is the soldier's identity put to the test abroad, but also the soldier's place in a democratic society. It quickly becomes clear to German officers in France that, as American observers such as Shurkin or Hodges suggest, the way society deals with a possible finality of the military profession, killing and being killed, is completely different in Germany than in most other countries. Many take part in ceremonies and military parades that can take them as far as the Champs-Elysée on July 14th. France celebrates its military and soldiers, whose reputation has increased significantly since the 2015 terrorist attacks.

Questions about the meaningfulness of the military profession and the place in foreign and security policy are hardly ever asked. French soldiers have been deployed almost continuously since the end of World War II. This includes the fact that 58 French soldiers died in action alone as part of the Barkhane mission in the Sahel. Ceremonies are regularly held in Les Invalides to honor those who died and their contribution to the security of France. This way of dealing with war and death may seem strange from a German point of view. However, French soldiers have a clear picture of their mission, which they fulfill in interaction with politics and society. And the French military is regularly named in polls as the institution most trusted by a majority of French people, far ahead of parliament, political parties or the media.

Face the debate

The war in Ukraine is forcing Germany to be honest in dealing with its own soldiers. A look at our ally makes it clear that the German culture in dealing with war and violence is still characterized by taboos and is downright dishonest. All soldiers who have undergone training abroad can report on this. Marcel Bohnert, Johannes Clair and other soldiers of the "Operational Generation" have publicly reviewed their experiences, some in detail. They wanted to initiate a debate and do justice to the model of the "Innereführung" and the "parliamentary army" of the Bundeswehr.

The German public has so far refused to engage in this debate, including in the context of the Russian attack on Ukraine. This is all the more incomprehensible since at the same time she is celebrating the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian soldiers. It would be good for Germany to listen more carefully in the future when well-meaning observers like Hodges or Shurkin or our French allies point out the contradictions in the German approach to the military and war. The question of whether there can be a "completely post-heroic army" or whether it is a "contradiction in itself", as Marcel Bohnert asked, is more urgent today than ever.

Taugen Staatsbürger in Uniform als Helden? - Reservistenverband

Der Krieg in der Ukraine zwingt Deutschland zur Auseinandersetzung mit militärischer Gewalt. Die Debatte zum Verhältnis der Deutschen zu ihren Soldaten kommt bisher zu kurz. Ein Kulturvergleich zwischen Deutschland und Frankreich.

www.reservistenverband.de