March 4 - Day 740 - I may have mentioned the war once, but I don't think anyone noticed!

Hi guys!

Two KP pieces with a bit of comment. The second one, link at the bottom, is about artillery shells to Ukraine. Short version, the Europeans are coming through, the Americans continue to embarrass themselves.

As to the first thing, most of you will have heard about the Russians publishing the transcript of four Luftwaffe staffers talking about sending Taurus missile to Ukraine. My newspaper did a thorough writeup on that, here’s the link.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/29004

The article lays out the basics so any of you that haven’t seen it elsewhere, there is that.

What really struck me going through the transcript, was how echt Deutsch these Luftwaffe dudes were. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking bratwurst and semf German military guys. Or goose-stepping German military guys. Or monocle-Schlager scar jackboot German military guys. Nein. These were the corporate kind.

Read the transcript. I am sure it’s legit (as is the Chancellor of Germany, among any others), and so this is a rare window into how four German military professionals with the ranking man a Lieutenant General look at a problem and with level-headed rationality dissect it down to rational, one might even say inevitable steps. The only filter in this conversation is the personal one each used for career purposes/according to professional ethnics. It’s almost never we civilians get a window onto how the professional soldiers are thinking.

It is even rarer, to get an honest read on some dudes at the top of the Luftwaffe, and their views about sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

These four men were all about process. They have a clear understanding of what they are supposed to do. What they might get asked to do. They are systematic and painstaking. They are clear-headed. They are subordinate. Amongst themselves they acknowledge, politely, the imperfections of their bosses, but they take not a step away from their responsibilities. Technicians.

The amazing thing, to me, is that from the conversation it would have been easy to conclude these guys were talking about installing air conditioners or maybe the pros or cons of a solar panel roof. They are literally discussing how, in practical terms, German high tech weapons would be used to kill Russian soldiers.

Is there a mention of a big conventional war in Europe? Nein.

Is there discussion of the historical implications? Nein.

Is there a conversation about the morality of enabling that arms transfer, while pretending nothing violent is being done by Germany? Nein.

Is there a mention, at all, of the country called Russia? Nein. Not once.

Is there even a hint of a ghost of a sign of recognition, that if you put four senior German officers on a conference call and have them discuss deploying weapons of war against Russia, and from start to finish it is obvious their overreaching goal is to follow orders, that actually that is irony worth remarking on? Nein.

I’m not really picking on these four men not so much for being the — based on the conversation — textbook passionless technocrat military German staff officer types we have known and loved from Moeltke to v. Schlieffen to v. Seekt.

Rather, it is plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Thanks to Kremlin spywork and goofy Kremlin hybrid war tactics (the leak is supposed to undermine German support to Ukraine, somehow), we just got a good look at some modern German generals conducting business.

Clauswitz would have recognized every one of them, right down to the exactly “correct” behavior towards elected officials and the excellent English, I think.

Anyone not understanding the John Cleese reference please Google “Fawlty Towers The Germans” and all will be clear.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28991