Here’s the worst part about the leaked German ‘Crimean Bridge attack’ call — RT World News

Since Russia revealed this February 19 High-ranking Luftwaffe officers discussed – in an essentially open conference platform – how German Taurus cruise missiles could hit Russian targets (let's call it a “Taurus pool”), and the public reaction in the West took two main forms: in Germany, The main record was clumsy damage control; This has created embarrassment among Berlin's allies, as well as barely concealed anger at multiple indiscretions – especially regarding covert British and American operations in Ukraine.

Allied discontent was evident in scathing headlines such as: Telegraph 'Germany exposes British military secrets… using commercial video phone technology in one of the worst security breaches in Berlin since the Cold War. Berlin's faltering attempts to contain what Chancellor Olaf said Schulz And he called “Very dangerous” The material consists of two uninteresting movements. First, make it all about Russia: “How evil they are, they have hacked us!”

Evidently, moralizing about routine eavesdropping among opponents seems rather ridiculous on the part of a government that does not mind blowing up pipelines and weaponizing deindustrialization among opponents. “Allies.” The somewhat whiny complaint also makes the German elite seem more modern. Public service announcement for everything new “time shift” Germany: Yes, countries, especially countries that are involved in waging a proxy war against them, will collect intelligence information about you. If your senior officers are clumsy enough to expose their secrets over clearly hackable online communications, you have only yourself to blame.

In the same context, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called for Russia to expose Berlin's tricks “Hybrid disinformation attack“. In fact, what bothers him is not that “misinformation” But on the contrary: facts that Germany itself had to admit were true. Berlin's reaction only shows that its and Kiev's methods of evading responsibility are now converging: As it happens, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has already — pre-emptively, so to speak — placed the blame for any future Ukrainian rebellion against his disastrous leadership on Russia. “Disinformation.” Between the German Tweedle-Dee and the Ukrainian Tweedle-Dum, the principle is the same: screw yourself up, blame others (i.e. Russia).

The second step Berlin took to ignite its failure was to avoid talking about its essence. As far as the content of the Taurus Huddle is summarized, only then, misleadingly, is the claim that it was all harmless routine: Planners will plan, you know; Just some virtual brainstorming. Moreover, they were only following orders (an Yes Yes Yes German political culture) by preparing a briefing for the Minister. Once again, Pistorius took the lead in the acquittal, declaring that the officers were “They just do what they are there to do.“ This is, in fact, a startlingly revealing statement: if the Taurus gathering is really part of the norm “job” – Pistorius also said – For the German officers now, everything is much worse again.

To understand why, we must do what many Germans like to avoid: delving into the details of the scandal.

The basics are simple: The conversation recording is about 40 minutes long; There were four participants. Two with high-level and important jobs: Chief of the Luftwaffe, Ingo Gerharz, and Head of the Operations and Training Department, Frank Graf. They are both generals. In addition, two lower-ranking experts (Oberstleutnant) from the Air Operations Command at the Space Operations Center, named Fenske and Frohstedte (or perhaps Frostedte), were also involved. The discussion details options for using Taurus missiles – officially by the Ukrainians, but with German and possibly British and US input – against the Kerch Strait bridge or Russian ammunition depots. Two of the participants tended to emphasize the feasibility of such operations (Fenske and Frohstedt), one of whom – to his credit – was more ambivalent, pointing out the obstacles and emphasizing the difficulty of concealing German involvement (Graf). Alarmingly, Gerhartz, the Air Force commander, can't figure out what to call it “the model” This is a clear reason not to launch a secret missile attack on Russian targets through Ukraine.

Originallythe tone is informal and the language is often filthy: a strange German hybrid (A “gibberish,” as the Germans used to say), which are often barely grammatical and saturated with comical phrases of English (“to cheat” Become “Pull the trick” (to pull the trick); Attack is “executable” As long as the Ukrainians are taught “to shoot the thing” (To photograph something, for example). This is not Ernst Jünger's high style.

To eliminate two diametrically opposed misinterpretations: discussion does that no It amounts to outright conspiracy. This is it no Off-line officers' meeting in public Discussing how to drag their political leadership into a secret cruise missile attack on Russia using Ukrainian proxies. But that's also the best that can be said for the Taurus Huddle, which is a very low bar. Because – this is the second common misunderstanding that we need to get rid of – this is it no Ordinary meeting either. here they are noAs Pistorius wants to pretend, staff officers detached from politics are dispassionately playing through military thought experiments (although that would be bad with this kind of scenario). In fact, the best phrase to describe the crux of the issue is: “The gray area.” Think of it as a messy mix between a primitive pretense of professional analysis and a massive dose of bias, politics, and recklessness.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the Taurus Huddle is that all participants take cheating for granted. No one sees any problems except A idiomatic Nature was in the idea of ​​an actual German attack on Russia as long as German input could be concealed or denied. It is in this spirit that officers consider details such as transmitting targeting information either via a secure data line (how ironic…) or perhaps by personal mail via Poland. (The Germans are setting a big target on Poland for the Russians? Qui mal y pense!) Or how the company producing Taurus aircraft (MBDA) could serve as a tool to hide the military's involvement. Their ideas are surprisingly crude, but more important is the sheer criminal energy and childish recklessness they betray.

In war, all is fair, some might say. But there are two flaws in this response: first, Germany is not actually at war with Russia – nor do the meeting participants assume it will be (at least not from the beginning), and “The next day” It doesn't seem to interest them.) Hence, secondly, while deception is a traditional and primarily legitimate element of war, what these officers regard as normal is something else, i.e. the substitution of deception inside A war with secret operations against the state of Germany, which is not and will not be in a state of war with it. This is probably the domain of intelligence services and special forces (and this is still not a good idea). There are very good constitutional reasons why conventional military officers should not even think of such methods as acceptable or (listen up, Boris Pistorius!) “Their job.”

A high point in this situation occurred when a member of the Taurus Huddlers admitted that with all the expected German training for the Ukrainians to handle German missiles in Ukraine, at least “First missions” ought to “Being conducted by us to support.” Those who do not know German well may misread this phrase – which is garbled in the original text, not just in this translation – as merely repeating the assertion that the Ukrainians will need help. But that would be a mistake: if you read carefully in the context of the previous discussion, this is clearly a euphemism for the Germans actually at least planning and targeting these attacks.

Another notable trait of the Taurus Huddle is the extreme indifference with which highly sensitive and damaging information regarding NATO allies and Ukraine is put forward. We know hardly anything surprising about the deep British, American and French involvement in the attacks on Russian forces. What is shocking is the hasty attitude with which German officers shot themselves in the mouth regarding these secret operations that did not even concern them. As for Ukraine, its air force must have been thrilled when it heard assurances from the Luftwaffe about the small number of aircraft of a certain type (“in odd numbers”) He left. To be sure, none of this was new for Russia. But I can imagine the Russian officers shaking their heads with a mixture of regretful disbelief and sarcasm at their German counterparts.

And last but not least, there is the fact that even moments of realism don't make Taurus stop and think. The meeting witnessed Air Force Commander Gerhartz himself admitting that even if Taurus planes were used, their numbers would be limited to a maximum of 100 missiles, and that their use would be limited. no “Change the war” This is in Kyiv's favor, of course. Meanwhile, Graf, Hadler's other general, stresses that the Kerch Strait Bridge is not an easy target and might survive an attack. Messing around everywhere. It is recognized that.

However, at the same time, none of them raises even the most serious danger that such an operation might entail. Graffi is concerned that the media may learn about the deceitful methods of the German military. However, this would be child's play compared to the worst that could happen. Because the strategy of childish cheating with Taurus couldIn reality, “Change the war”: By getting Russia to abandon its policy of turning a blind eye to most actual Western acts of war, and instead begin to retaliate, for example, against Germany.

These are the officers who swore an oath to defend Germany. But with them Just It seems that the real interest is focused on knowing how to help Ukraine fight Russia, while ignoring the risks that their plans may expose Germany. The first problem here is that, in practice, they seem to have lost any sense of the difference between their commitments to Germany and Ukraine (or NATO). The second reason is that their Minister of Defense, their Chancellor, and a large section of the German people seem unable to distinguish between the two matters. In this sense, the Taurus rally may appear in history as a victory for Ukrainian politics, even if it was a futile one.