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Microsoft office 2008 lion compatibility8/17/2023 The episode raises more fundamental questions about the Atlantic alliance than just the issue of which weapons system to send to Ukraine. The whole episode will probably be forgotten by all but a few transatlantic defence wonks within a few months. US leadership once again allowed the alliance to resolve an inter-allied dispute. No longer “alone,” the German government approved the export and transfer of Leopards to Ukraine. In interests of allied unity, the US eventually stepped in and agreed to provide 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, despite its oft-stated belief that the Abrams made little military sense for Ukraine. Like a scared child in a room full of strangers, Germany felt alone if Uncle Sam was not holding its hand. It was not enough that other partners would send tanks or that the US might send other weapons. He was unwilling to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine unless the US also sent its own main battle tank, the M1 Abrams. More broadly, the Leopard issue took place in a context in which the West, including Germany and the US, had already provided tens of billions of dollars of military equipment to Ukraine, much of which was already quite deadly to Russians.īut “alone” had a very specific meaning for Scholz. The United States, France, and Germany itself had already committed to send infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine, a weapons system that the lay person cannot even distinguish from tanks. The European Parliament voted in favour of an EU initiative in this regard in October 2022. The Polish and Finnish governments had publicly signalled that they would be ready to supply Leopard 2 tanks in conjunction with other allies. Britain had already announced that it would send 14 of its Challenger main battle tanks to Ukraine. The curious part was that no one was asking Germany to act alone. “We always act together with our allies and friends,” Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, insisted. But it worried about escalation and the reaction from Moscow, particularly given Germany’s troubled history with Russia, and so refused to move first. The government in Berlin did not precisely disagree. Ukraine said it needed Western tanks – and the German-made Leopards were the tank that best fit the bill. The West had collectively committed to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. The issue of sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine roiled German and European politics for months. Europeans can become a stronger and more independent part of the Atlantic alliance by developing independent capacity to support Ukraine and acquiring greater military capabilities.
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