Dumb as They Come: Scholz and Pistorius on New Missile Defense Systems

Gilbert Doctorow
Gilbert Doctorow's Substack

Following the successful Russian missile attacks on Poltava, on Lviv, on Krivoy Rog and on several other towns in Ukraine where there were large concentrations of NATO officers, high level advisers and instructors, the notion that there is any defense whatsoever against Russian hypersonic missiles was disproved beyond any doubt.

For well over a year, we have known that Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock is a disgrace to the government she serves. The lady is not smart enough to flip hamburgers at McDonalds let alone sit in the federal cabinet and make pronouncements bearing on war and peace. She will never live down her remark that Vladimir Putin must change his course by 360 degrees.

However, I had always thought of Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a wily fox. Of course, I believed that he is an out and out coward, a sell-out to American interests at the expense of his own nation. His silence on the sabotage of the Nord Stream I pipeline was proof positive. But stupid?

What he and his Defense Minister Boris Pistorius were saying these past two days on the sidelines of the Ramstein gathering of donors to the Ukrainian war effort leave little doubt that he is also a damned fool.

I have in mind Scholz’s announcement that Germany will now budget for new procurement of air defense capabilities for itself and will join other European countries in their plans to build what might be called an iron dome, if we may borrow from the Israeli lexicon, to describe an impenetrable screen against incoming airborne attack.

If such an announcement might have appeared to be patriotic and an investment in the security of his nation, say, a week ago, the events of the past week have trashed all such thoughts. Following the successful Russian missile attacks on Poltava, on Lviv, on Krivoy Rog and on several other towns in Ukraine where there were large concentrations of NATO officers, high level advisers and instructors, the notion that there is any defense whatsoever against Russian hypersonic missiles was disproved beyond any doubt.

The Russians say that their attack on the communications institute in Poltava, which may have killed 200 and sent to hospital with grievous wounds another 500, was executed with a variant of the Iskander missile, which has a maximum speed of Mach 6.

If we concede that Poltava may not have enjoyed very good protection from anti-missile defense, the situation was precisely the opposite in Lviv, which was protected by an American Patriot system plus additional systems manufactured in Germany, Italy and elsewhere within NATO. For this hardened target, the Russians used their Kinzhal missile which travels at Mach 10. If this were not enough, they also have the Avangard family of missiles which reach Mach 20. There is absolutely no known air defense which can protect against these missiles now in the Russian arsenal, and we may well assume that by the time the Germans will actually acquire and set up what they now are thinking of buying, the Russians will have still more advanced attack missiles that remain invincible.

As for the long range nuclear armed missiles that the United States is planning to deliver to Germany in 2026 with the consent of Mr. Scholz, that only has the effect of painting a very big bulls-eye on his country. Moreover, it is a provocation that could prompt a preemptive strike from Russia.

Would it not make more sense for the German leadership to face up to the facts: namely that Russia’s ability to destroy their country is for the foreseeable future beyond their own ability to protect themselves, with or without American help. That admission should lead them to do the obvious: sit down with the Russians and come to terms over a new security architecture for Europe that everyone, EVERYONE can live with.

I close with a couple of further observations about what the Russians were doing this week. In Lviv, they not only killed numerous NATO personnel but destroyed a newly arrived train from Poland carrying a large amount of advanced weaponry for Ukraine. By choosing as targets installations in various cities where NATO officers are living, the Kremlin was delivering an unmistakable message to the Alliance, to its main decision maker, the United States, that it has the will and the wherewithal to take on NATO directly wherever and whenever it believes that its ‘red lines’ are being crossed. It may well be that even in Washington this message was received …and understood. To my knowledge, Zelensky’s bleating at Ramstein for permission to use long-range NATO supplied missiles to attack the Russian heartland fell on deaf ears.

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Image: © N/A; The Daily Herald. AWIP: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/aS4J