February 18, 2023 at 09:35: 500,000 signers of the peace manifesto
The Iron Curtain is back. The dead of the war have become six figures. And something like a limited nuclear first strike is being discussed on German radio. Have we all gone insane? No not all. Even a minority.
While I was drinking my morning coffee and looking out the kitchen window at the rain, a song by the band „International“ went through my head. Their musicians also came from the former zone border area between Harz and Heideland. That was the name of the song that we roared along from beer-soaked throats at parties or in front of the stage in the early 1980s: “Zonenrandgebiet”.
„zone border area“. For us, the residents of the former Central German border, it was more than just a feeling. Huben like over there. There was something oppressive about living on the edge of the zone.
This depressing feeling brought back to me this morning listening to a political program on Deutschlandfunk. In this meeting, the urgently needed tank deliveries and further arms deliveries to the Ukraine were discussed among women – as has now become a matter of course. Not a word about the fact that apart from Germany, only Portugal would be willing to send 3 (three!) Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
Even the combat-ready NATO member Poland, which is very clear when it comes to its readiness for war against Russia, had questioned a promised delivery of fourteen Leopard 2 tanks because of their supposedly poor condition and lack of operational capability. Please read more here.
a-bigger-bang 