Sahra Wagenknecht, Alice Schwarzer and like-minded people are calling for “peace” for the Ukraine. They don’t have solid arguments, but plenty of flimsy ones. Says publicist Liane Bednarz.
Maybe it really is a German phenomenon, letter-writing, i.e. writing open letters against Ukraine. In the meantime, three such letters have already appeared: starting with “The open letter to Chancellor Scholz” from April 29, 2022, which the magazine “Emma” initiated, to the appeal “ceasefire now”, which the writer Juli Zeh launched in “Zeit” from June 29, 2022 with various first signatories to the “Manifesto for Peace” by Alice Schwarzer and Sahra Wagenknecht on February 10, 2023.
In any case, these appeals have had one result so far: they shape public discourse in Germany. There is hardly a talk show on Ukraine in which the position of letter writer is not represented, even if it is by non-signatories like the SPD politicians Ralf Stegner and Rolf Mützenich, who are demanding the same thing on the matter.
you have a problem
But now the letter writers have a serious problem: with the issuing of the international arrest warrant against Putin by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Because from now on they have to explain why they absolutely want to have negotiations with an officially wanted war criminal who is accused of deporting children to Russia. Instead of outlawing him and further weakening him militarily.
Liane Bednarz, born in 1974, is a lawyer and publicist. In January 2023 she traveled to Ukraine. Together with the spokesman for the German writers’ association PEN Berlin, Deniz Yücel, she brought two fire engines, power generators and other equipment to the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
In addition, there are first signs of frustration in the milieu. Ex-Brigade General Erich Vad, a star of the scene so to speak, who shared the stage with Wagenknecht and Schwarzer, recently told the NZZ that he was withdrawing from the public eye. Instead of facing the fact that he – the “NZZ” also cites various examples – has been almost always wrong with his forecasts against Ukraine since the beginning of the war and was ridiculed for this outside of the letter-writing, he prefers to whine and lament about “malice”. opposite him.
Bizarrely, not one of the prominent letter signers was, at least as far as is known, in the war in Ukraine. If they traveled there, they would quickly realize that defending the country is not a territorial end in itself, nor is hatred of Putin driving Ukrainians. The Ukrainians only want to keep what is guaranteed in the comfortable life of letter writers: self-determination and freedom.
Unbearable idea
The idea of becoming part of the Russian dictatorship is unbearable for them. The daily horror in the occupied territories has made it clear to them what is in store for people whose area of life is ceded to Russia as part of the “negotiated solution” or “compromises on both sides” dreamed of by the letter writers. I spoke to people in Bucha and a village near Kiev who found neighbors and acquaintances shot dead during the occupation.
Apparently, the letter writers and other peace activists don’t care much. Instead, they have always settled into the same buzzwords and phrases, a kind of bullshit bingo, always to be expected. In essence, there are four figures that are constantly repeated: “escalation dominance” on the part of Putin, “you can’t defeat a nuclear power,” “the Ukrainian victims,” and “bellicism.” None convinced.
The Halle political scientist and letter signer Johannes Varwick in particular, who is regularly passed around, also in the form of guest articles in newspapers or invitations to events, carries the term “escalation dominance” before him like a monstrance. But Zeh’s letter also speaks of a “manifest risk of escalation,” while Wagenknecht and Schwarzer stir up fears of “a Third World War.”
But does that correspond to reality? Putin has suffered defeat after defeat. The war is now primarily back where it started in 2014: in the Donbass. The defeated Kremlin despot had to withdraw from Kiev, the regions in the north-east and even Cherson in the south. He was never able to take Kiev and Odessa. Russia’s army and its amateurish warfare was mocked around the world almost from the start.
Only threats
Certainly, from those close to Putin there were threats and threats of using nuclear weapons. Just a few weeks ago, ex-president Dmitry Medvedev started doing it again. On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry already denied nuclear plans in May 2022.
