Germany Refuses to Step Up on Tanks for Ukraine

On the menu today: We hear a great deal about the importance of working with our allies in foreign policy, but that happy rhetoric glides past the fact even our longstanding allies can often be real pains in the tuckus, dragging their feet on key decisions. The Ukrainian government says it needs more tanks to fight the war against the invading Russians. President Biden says Ukraine will get what it needs. But the German government wants the U.S. to send its own tanks before it sends any German ones, other European NATO allies can’t send their German-made tanks without Berlin’s permission, and the German defense minister is calling for patience.

He knows a war is going on, right?

Tanks for Nothing, Germany

Vladimir Putin must be laughing his butt off. He should be.

First it was MiG-29s, then it was Patriot missile batteries, then it was Bradley fighting vehicles. The pattern continues; Ukraine asks for a weapons system, and then the Biden administration and the rest of NATO hem and haw about sending them, warning that it will take a while for the Ukrainians to be trained how to use the system. Then, after the war worsens and more Ukrainians die, Biden and NATO come around and decide to send the system.