With the escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine, European and American politicians and media are ecstatically praising Germany, Europe’s largest economy, for its “180 degree turn” and “historic change” in national defense and foreign policy.

Following the statement on February 26 that it would provide Ukraine with 1000 anti tank weapons and 500 stinger class surface to air missiles, the next day, German Chancellor Scholtz delivered a speech at the emergency session of the Bundestag, announcing that he would allocate 100 billion euros to upgrade armaments and invest 2% of Germany’s GDP in national defense.

Scholtz’s speech received unprecedented unanimous approval from members of all parties in Germany, and even the members of the far right German choice party stood up and applauded for a long time. European Commission President von delaine called the above decision a “watershed moment”, and the EU also announced that it would spend more than $500 million to buy weapons for Ukraine. Zelinski, who had previously complained that Germany should send pillows because it only helped helmets, smiled and directly tweeted “@ Prime Minister olfshorz!” And released the news of German aid to weapons.

Don’t underestimate this 2% – last year it was about 1.5% – the seemingly small change in figures has broken some deep-rooted political taboos in Germany. Previously, although Germany is one of the world’s largest arms exporters, it has long insisted on not delivering lethal weapons to conflict areas. Therefore, Germany was criticized by the United States as “a weak link in the NATO Western military alliance”.

Today, Scholtz’s move not only reflects the transformation of German defense policy, but also runs counter to German foreign policy since World War II. Although Germany is an ally of the United States and a member of NATO, successive German premiers have maintained relatively stable diplomatic and economic exchanges with Moscow from the “Oriental Policy” of Brandt’s Government in the 1970s to the “special relationship between Germany and Russia” in the Schroeder period and then to the “partnership” in the Merkel era.

Merkel paid a farewell visit to two countries before leaving office. After her visit to the United States, she went straight to Moscow for three hours of talks with Putin. Western media have repeatedly ridiculed Merkel and Putin for having worked and lived in democratic Germany and speaking each other’s language. In fact, during the 16 years of Merkel’s administration, although Germany and Russia have many differences on NATO, Ukraine and other issues, they have always maintained dialogue and communication.

Bismarck has a famous saying: “what is the secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.” However, Scholz did not have Bismarck’s means, nor Merkel’s favorable timing, location and people.

As a leader in Europe, Germany will pay a high price for the shift of foreign policy. Russia’s flagship trade with Germany is the biggest cost of Russia’s energy consumption in Europe. This means that Europe will rely more on the latter as the United States wishes - through the conflict in Ukraine, the hegemonic ambition of the United States and the power of financial capital have once again been deeply bound in Europe.

European defense is also firmly tied to the chariot by the United States. The so-called European defense autonomy plan once advocated by two old carriages of Germany and France has completely failed. Raising annual military spending to 2% of GDP is a demand that has been putting pressure on NATO’s European countries since the trump administration. It was not until the Crimean crisis in 2014 that Merkel said it would take 10 years to reach an agreement.

Merkel worked hard with the United States in the past, but now the German government has spent a lot of money to update the arsenal, including the purchase of American F-35 fighters and Israeli drones. All this means that the defense industry cooperation and “Strategic Autonomy” among European countries are gradually moving away, and the rest is just following behind the United States.

What is more dangerous is that the conflict in Ukraine did not make European countries, including Germany, make any policy reflection. Instead, it fell into the discourse routine of fanning the flames of Uncle Sam, creating an “enemy” and eventually becoming the “self realization” of prophecy.

As early as after the Crimea incident, well-known American scholar Mearsheimer once pointed out that the United States and its European allies are the main responsible party of the Ukrainian crisis. The root of the crisis is the eastward expansion of NATO, and Russia will not allow Ukraine to become a Western stronghold at home. He warned that if the United States and its allies continue to intensify the conflict with Russia and destroy Ukraine, everyone will be a loser.

However, at the time of the war in Ukraine, the “double eastward expansion” of the EU and NATO intensified and continued to trample on the “red line” considered by Russia. The EU announced that it had launched Ukraine’s accession to the EU. NATO invited Finland and Sweden to attend the meeting to discuss the Ukrainian crisis, breaking the precedent of inviting informal Member States to attend the meeting.

Germany and many EU countries have almost completely accepted the “Russian threat theory” of the United States, and even become the responder to the fallacy that China has “special responsibility” for Ukraine. Tolsten Benner of the Global Public Policy Institute believes that Scholz’s historic speech “is the starting point for fundamental rethinking as part of Germany’s national security strategy, which must also respond to common challenges, including China and Russia.”

The root of Germany’s policy change is not only the change of its understanding of European security, but also the attempt to redefine its national status of “economic giant and political invisible man” after World War II. Russia’s profile weekly pointed out that Germany has “abandoned the pacifism formed in decades” and that “the whole west, including Germany, is ready to engage in a protracted major confrontation with Russia”.

“Germany has just become a normal big country,” said Tyson Barker, head of global affairs of the German Council on foreign relations.

“Normal country” - wait, is that a bit familiar? In Japan, thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe jumped out and publicly claimed that Japan should explore “nuclear sharing” with the United States under the pretext of the war in Ukraine.

The ghost of militarism is being released from the rubble of the old empire