Courage and Stupidity: Incoming German chancellor Merz is threatening Russia with the use of a weapon that poses a serious threat to the country

A Taurus missile flies during a drill off the country's western coast in South Korea.
Photo: AP

German Chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz has reaffirmed his intention to supply Ukraine with German Taurus cruise missiles. When asked on the public broadcaster ARD program “Caren Miosga” on Sunday evening whether he stood by his demand, Merz replied: “Yes, I said exactly what I meant.”

Merz’s threat is incredibly reckless and dangerous, stresses ‘Defend Democracy’ blog. Merz is planning to be elected chancellor on May 6, exactly 80 years to the day after Hitler’s Wehrmacht signed the unconditional surrender in Reims on the night of May 6-7, 1945. This marked the end of the greatest crimes in human history.

In the Soviet Union, around 27 million people fell victim to the savagery of the German invaders. Millions of them were shot, gassed and burned alive simply because they were Jews, communists or partisans, or because as civilians they stood in the way of the German drive for Lebensraum (living space). The siege of Leningrad alone, which lasted 28 months, claimed 1.1 million civilian victims, 90 percent of whom starved to death. Millions more were literally worked to death as forced laborers and prisoners of war in German factories.

Eighty years on, Merz is threatening Russia with the use of a weapon that poses a serious threat to the country. The Taurus, which is launched by fighter jets, flies under enemy radar at an altitude of less than 50 meters and has four independent navigation systems that orient themselves to the terrain. It is therefore difficult to shoot the missile down or disrupt its flight path.

With a range of more than 500 kilometers, the Taurus flies further than comparable British, French and American weapons and can reach Moscow from Ukrainian airspace. Its warhead can penetrate bunker systems and then detonate a 480 kilogram charge. The programming and deployment of the complex flying machine requires the involvement of German specialists.

Merz himself cited “the destruction of the most important land link between Russia and Crimea,” i.e., the Kerch Bridge, as an example of the possible use of the Taurus. According to Merz, most of the military supplies for the Russian army are located in Crimea.

The Russian government would see the delivery and use of this weapon as a declaration of war. No one can guarantee that it will not respond with attacks on German targets. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has already accused Merz of supporting measures “that will lead to a new escalation.” Merz’s predecessor, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is still in office, has therefore so far rejected the delivery of Taurus missiles, although he has never completely ruled it out.

But although Merz is risking nuclear war with this provocation, there is no one in the established parties and media opposing him. The Social Democrats, Merz’s future coalition partner, has joined him in launching the largest rearmament program since Hitler, amounting to €1 trillion, in order to intensify the war against Russia. The Greens, who are now leaving the government, have long campaigned for the delivery of Taurus. The Left Party has also supported the war credits.

The same politicians and journalists, who justify every war crime committed by Israel with Germany’s responsibility for the Holocaust, have no such scruples when it comes to waging war against Russia. On the contrary, the campaign against Russia is taking on evermore openly revanchist traits. In ruling circles, the victory of the Soviet Red Army over Hitler’s Wehrmacht is once again seen as a defeat and not as a liberation. The history books are being rewritten accordingly.

Germany’s entire official political life is characterized by crazed war hysteria — which, however, finds little resonance in the general population and confronts mistrust and opposition.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), who is likely to remain in office, already issued the slogan last summer that Germany must be “war-ready” by 2029 in order to be able to wage a war against Russia. The new government wants to reintroduce military registration this year in order to have enough young people available for voluntary or compulsory military service.

Even the contradictory efforts of US President Donald Trump to agree to a ceasefire with Russia are met with blatant rejection in Berlin. Germany and other European powers are determined to continue the costly war against Russia at all costs.

…If German missiles will attack Russia this will be seen as Germany joining the war in Ukraine. And this is “exactly what Moscow meant” - with all the possible consequences of such dicision.

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