Top German Defense Expert: Beware of the British

The British government has openly criticized German Chancellor Scholz for refusing to deliver the Taurus cruise missile to Ukraine, which lead to a warning by German Colonel Ralph Thiele (ret.), chairman of the Political-Military Society, Chairman of EuroDefense Germany, and CEO of StratByrd Consulting. In an interview with NTV, he pointed out that “The British are the drivers of a belligerent solution to the problem, i.e., to bring the Russians to their knees through war … we should not allow ourselves to be driven by the British.”

In an interview with Focus Online published on March 2, Col. Thiele again turned the spotlight on the British, saying that the UK is a prime suspect in the wiretapped discussion on the Taurus among high-level German officers (cf. SAS 10/24). In terms of who might have intercepted and circulated the discussion, Focus quotes Thiele as saying that “basically, there are two ‘suspects’”. One, the article continues, is the Western states, that might want to undermine Chancellor Scholz’s cautious approach. “Since hybrid warfare – in which the British, for example, are also masters – is preferably conducted via third parties, nothing is as it seems at first.”

On the other hand, the British have an ally in German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. She is also opposed to the Chancellor’s position on the Taurus. On the Caren Miosga TV show March 10, she indicated she was in favor of direct delivery of the cruise missile to Kyiv, in addition to supporting the British proposal for a “ring exchange”, under which the Taurus would be given to the U.K., which then would supply Ukraine with British Storm Shadow missiles.