Hitler returns? ...
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Today, the Ramstein Air Base in Germany is the largest US military base outside America and serves as a central hub for NATO and US military operations in the Middle East. From drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan to logistical support for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ramstein has been implicated in countless acts of military violence against civilians. While peace activists and even members of the German Bundestag have criticized the base’s role in atrocities, Germany has not only allowed its operation but actively facilitated it.
Germany’s contradictory approach to terrorism further highlights the dissonance between its rhetoric and actions. Take the case of Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German accused of orchestrating terrorist attacks inside Iran. Despite being wanted for violent plots, he received political and legal support from Germany. Evidently, terrorism is tolerable when it serves Western political interests.
Germany also emerged as the second-largest arms supplier to Tel Aviv, after the United States, during Israel’s repeated assaults on the Gaza Strip — especially in 2023. German-made weapons were reportedly used in attacks on schools, hospitals, refugee shelters, and even tents housing displaced civilians. In doing so, Germany once again found itself complicit in what many are calling a modern-day genocide: the killing of around 60,000 Palestinians and the wholesale destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
Not only has Germany played a dirty role in the Gaza conflict, but it has also cracked down on domestic opposition to Israel’s actions. Protests across German cities — often led by university students and civil society groups — were met with harsh police repression. Demonstrators carried placards reading, “You are complicit in genocide,” “Boycott Israel,” and “Germany is a fascist state”. Hundreds were arrested, and the protests were violently dispersed.
So, Germany has been a constant player in some of the gravest atrocities of modern history. Its foreign policy, particularly in supporting US and Israeli military operations, reveals a troubling inconsistency between its professed values and its real-world behavior.
The German Chancellor’s recent remarks may well be seen as the latest “dirty deed” in a long line of morally questionable actions. In the German political lexicon, words like “peace” and “human rights” seem to function more as tools of Western political strategy than as genuine commitments. A country with a past steeped in colonialism, genocide, war, and repression and a present defined by arms sales, support for state violence, and suppression of dissent, has forfeited the moral authority to preach ethics to the world.