ALLIANCE FO§ DEMOCRACY

1st September 2014

The Second World War began on 1st September 1939. On the morning of this day, at exactly 04:45, the old German Navy training battleship “Schleswig-Holstein” opened fire, and the invasion of Poland by German troops began on the orders of Adolf Hitler. On the same day, Hitler, by means of the “Euthanasia” decree, set in motion the systematic murder of the so-called mentally-ill and handicapped, and with the “Order on Extraordinary Radio Measures” on 1.9.1939, it became a criminal offence for anyone to listen to foreign radio broadcasts in the National Socialist Greater German Empire. The penalty of death could also be imposed for disseminating foreign news reports.
Today, on 1st September 2014, 75 years after the beginning of the Second World War, the German Bundestag is discussing whether German armaments should be supplied to Iraq. This would involve supplying anti-tank missiles and machine-guns to the Kurds in northern Iraq in their struggle against the terrorist militia of Islamic State (IS). This had however already been decided on the previous day by a group of ministers under Angela Merkel. So we ask ourselves: Where else can such a thing happen? That a government decides something which can only be confirmed by the Bundestag? Or that the debate follows the actual vote? The Bundestag is only today, on 1.9.2014, discussing the supply of weapons, and this only happened because of a motion for resolution. This has no binding effect however on the government. That means: The decision has been made, and neither the people nor their representatives have any influence over it, and cannot overturn this approval by the government.
Certainly, a state must protect its citizens, but in times of war on the doorstep of Europe, a currency declining in value day-by-day and a horrendously overstretched national budget, any means are apparently justified to scrape up money for the ailing German Treasury. The export of anti-tank missiles and guns to northern Iraq will bring in € 70 million; deliveries are already underway from the USA and Iran. France, Italy and Great Britain also want a slice of the cake, and are said to have made the corresponding decisions.
Although it was for a long time considered taboo for German armaments to be supplied to crisis regions, Federal Defence Minister von der Leyen has made it clear: German foreign policy can no longer be entirely peaceful, as also repeatedly called for by Federal President Joachim Gauck. It is clear that Germany is supplying more and more armaments throughout the world. So far without any public response or outcry, because who bothers to read the armaments export report which is published every year. Judging by the report from the year 2013, the Cabinet approved 900 more export licenses that year (in 2012 it was 16,380; in 2013 17,280). The value of these armaments exports also increased: in 2013 it was € 5.8 billion; in 2012 € 4.7 billion. These weapons were supplied mainly to non-NATO countries and other countries outside the EU. It is therefore time to legalise the income source of armaments exports, and it therefore hardly remains to be seen how Angela Merkel will explain such an action of her government.
No matter what the Chancellor might say about the danger and brutality of the IS fighters: A government that has to decide over everyone’s heads, and is even prepared to break a taboo of foreign policy, cannot be assumed to be doing any good. The 1st September 2014 will go down accordingly as another sad day in history - as a proof of the abolition of democracy in Germany.