Major General (ret.) Schultze-Rhonhof speaks out 24.12.2023 "Ladies and gentlemen! I did not serve as a soldier for 37 years to preserve peace in Germany, and now to watch idly and without comment as Germany is slowly but likely headed toward active participation in a foreign and senseless war. Our "Three Wise Men," Chancellor Scholz, Minister Lindner, and Minister Dr. Habeck, all initially refused military service in their younger years for Germany's law and freedom and the preservation of our democracy. They are now spending far more than 10 billion euros of taxpayer money per year on "law," "freedom," "democracy," and Western values in a foreign state that is neither a democracy nor represents Western values. They are using our taxpayer money and the blood of foreign conscripts to prolong a war that has now become senseless.
Ukraine is by no means a democracy, and its values are not ours. Eleven opposition parties are banned in Ukraine. Zelenskyy has banned the presidential elections scheduled for March 2024 (such elections are taking place in Russia). In Ukraine, all media outlets are under control. No reports critical of Ukraine from Ukraine are permitted by German journalists (comments critical of Russia from Moscow are quite common). In Ukraine, political assassinations are commonplace (according to the three-week protocols of the Federal Agency for Civic Education up until the outbreak of the war). Ukraine and Russia are together the two most corrupt countries in Europe (according to Transparency International). Buying out of military service is just as common in Ukraine as it is in Russia. With its record of breaches of international treaties and violations of UN conventions and international charters, Ukraine's record is in no way inferior to that of Russia in terms of frequency and severity. The nature and frequency of Ukrainian war crimes are similar to those committed by Russia; only the misuse of humanitarian facilities protected under international humanitarian law as human shields for fighting troops occurs only on the Ukrainian side (according to the OSCE report of June 29, 2022).
This Ukraine is neither a democracy nor does it stand for our values, as the German media and the majority of our political parties would have us believe. The official interpretation presented to us that Ukraine would help defend our values is as foolish as Struck's "Defense of Germany in the Hindu Kush." I expect the former conscientious objectors in the Bundestag and the federal government—true to their former sense of peace—to actively work for the quickest possible end to the war in Ukraine and to abandon their unrealistic, phantom visions of a Ukrainian victory. I expect the same from all other governments and parliamentarians. The idea of a possible reunification of two quarreling and now hateful sections of a nation, who had already waged war against each other for eight years before the Russian invasion, into a future Ukraine of its former size is the pipe dream of fools. Regarding the zeal of the majority of German parties to help the Ukrainians achieve victory with money and arms deliveries, I'm reminded of a saying by Russian Lieutenant General Alexander Lebed, who said during the first Chechen war: "Let me recruit a company from the sons of the elite, and the war will be over the next day." (Lebed was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in Russia in 1996.)
The second question at issue here is whether the Russian Federation has actually threatened the West, or even a NATO member state or other neighboring country since its withdrawal from Central Europe following the end of the Soviet disintegration process. I will answer this question in detail in the explanatory statement for the following letter to the politicians. This explanatory statement is attached as Appendix 1 to this email.
Since August 15, 2022, I have tried to inform hundreds of members of parliament about the background to the Russian invasion and the events inside Ukraine. Then, I proposed a German initiative for a rapid end to the war to the Federal Chancellor, former chancellors, and leading politicians with still open channels of communication with Moscow. I made my final attempt at Christmas 2023 with the following letter, sent to members of the Federal Government, the parliamentary group leaders of all parties in the Bundestag, to all party leaders and general secretaries, and to all state premiers. Only two party leaders, sitting on the sidelines of the plenary hall, responded with approval and in any way, but they stated that they could do nothing. I have just received a polite but dismissive response from the leader of the largest opposition party, whose silence and disregard for the long history of the war I cannot accept and whose insinuations against Putin I largely cannot confirm. Incidentally, allegedly proven but unfounded allegations were also a common element in the dynamite of the two world wars. Despite all courtesy, the reply gives the impression that its author hasn't even read the justification for my proposal (Appendix 1).
The German people are tired of not being informed about the background to the war in Ukraine and of investing 10 to 15 billion euros annually, despite their own tight budgets, in a senseless, foreign war and the continued deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. If the German government, disregarding German interests, risks the war in Ukraine escalating into a conflagration and involving Germany as well—as Chancellor Scholz originally feared—the people themselves must remind the government of their first duty. So far, the vast majority of German politicians have been primarily interested in a Ukrainian victory and a Russian defeat, and only secondarily in peace. Please read my Christmas letter to politicians and pass on my thoughts to other interested parties. And try to convince your representatives of the possibility of an early end to the war. Yours, Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof Major General (ret.)
