Defending every square inch: Scholz, who never served, plays the war chancellor

Not only are there no initiatives whatsoever coming from the German and European sides to end the war in Ukraine.

What's worse, it's the unofficial German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of all people, who is increasingly playing the role of war chancellor. Pithy sayings that sound like mockery coming out of his mouth and astonishing PR images as a "fighter pilot" are intended to underscore the change in image. The result is as implausible as it is ridiculous.

Like a Dachshund pretending to be a Rottweiler: This may have occurred to one or the other observer as he followed Scholz's latest media staging: During the NATO maneuver "Air Defender," the stodgy chancellor did not miss the opportunity to demonstratively climb into the cockpit of a Eurofighter himself during a visit to Jagel Air Base in Schleswig-Holstein.

Embarrassing appearance in the fighter jet

Commenting on this embarrassing appearance, an Air Force spokesman gloated that there had not been a chancellor in a fighter jet for at least 30 years, if ever. What he did not say was that 30 years ago, the Bundeswehr still had intact aircraft, and did not give away what little was still rolling, floating and sailing to a side in a war with which Germany had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do. This alone shows how far this country has come.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz - We will defend every square inch

Last August, Scholz had already climbed into a Gepard anti-aircraft tank, again during a visit to Schleswig-Holstein, with media attention. Two weeks ago, he had himself transported by helicopter to the warship "Mecklenburg-Vorpommern" to attend a naval exercise off the Baltic coast. On that occasion, he had also paid a visit to a minehunting boat and assessed the holding of such maneuvers as a sign of strength, also and especially vis-à-vis Russia.

Careless rhetoric

Even more memorable, however, was what Scholz had to say on the occasion of the largest NATO air exercise in the alliance's history to date, in which 25 countries are participating with some 10,000 soldiers and 250 aircraft: The chancellor praised the maneuver as an important sign of the unity and defense readiness of NATO and its allies. But then he lapsed into rhetoric that is as hypocritical as it is negligent.

The point, Scholz said, is that "the statement is also taken seriously by everyone that we are ready to defend every inch of our territory." In doing so, he repeated almost verbatim what he had already martially proclaimed in the Estonian capital Tallinn just over three weeks ago: "We are ready to defend every square inch of NATO territory against attacks."

A conscientious objector as militaristic muzzler

This sounds like mockery from the mouth of a chancellor whose government is doing everything it can to open up every inch of German territory to settlement space for an African-Oriental exchange population, and who is doing absolutely nothing to defend German culture, identity and values - on the contrary.

Of all people, the dyed-in-the-wool civilian Scholz, who in 1984 had himself done civilian service in a nursing home instead of undergoing the rigors of military service! There is nothing to be said against this; but the fact that he, of all people, is now presenting himself as war chancellor, as military leader and inspector of his troops, is not without a certain comical quality and shows how little is left of the former SPD pacifism.

No longer defensible

Quite apart from the negligent, undiplomatic public image and the alarming escalation of the escalation toward Russia, even if one were to take Scholz's forceful statements seriously, it remains unclear how he intends to achieve even rudimentary national defense with the Bundeswehr, which has been run down to the point of complete operational incapacity and could probably no longer defend even a single major German city.

What remains is the embarrassing self-promotion of the weakest chancellor in the Federal Republic, who himself has refused military service (as, incidentally, have all but two members of his cabinet).

A joke

In a podcast last year, by the way, Scholz blatantly blurted out that, in explaining his refusal, he had joked that he had read all of Karl May's books and that the respective heroes had never killed anyone. As a result, he had been "very morally shaped," Scholz said with tongue-in-cheek cynicism.

Today, he heads a government that would prefer to ban Karl May's works for "racism" and "cultural appropriation." "Somehow I got away with the joke," Scholz had further explained at the time. This can be stated for his entire career.