Let me comment one fragment "There are three strands to German reluctance to stand up to Moscow .... - the guilt that flows from the death of 25 million Soviet citizens in the second world war."
1)A great majority of the victims are not Russians but Belarussians and Ukrainians. Why then Germany are reluctant to help Ukraine when it faces imminent aggression?
2)The number of Soviets perished in WW II is a mistery. 50 years ago, the Soviets claimed that they lost 10 million people; in 1990's that grew to about 20 M; now the number is above 30 M. However, I tend to believe rather Robert Conquest, a distinquished Anglo-American historian, who suspected that a large part of the victims were in fact the victims of Stalinist oppression.
It is sad that the West, not only Germany, did not take a lesson from Munich Conference of 1938.
Short answer is "no, they aren't". The arms inventory is a tiny fraction of Russia's (despite having a much greater GDP than Russia) and most of it doesn't work. More importantly, there is little will among the German people to defend themselves.
Let me comment one fragment "There are three strands to German reluctance to stand up to Moscow .... - the guilt that flows from the death of 25 million Soviet citizens in the second world war."
1)A great majority of the victims are not Russians but Belarussians and Ukrainians. Why then Germany are reluctant to help Ukraine when it faces imminent aggression?
2)The number of Soviets perished in WW II is a mistery. 50 years ago, the Soviets claimed that they lost 10 million people; in 1990's that grew to about 20 M; now the number is above 30 M. However, I tend to believe rather Robert Conquest, a distinquished Anglo-American historian, who suspected that a large part of the victims were in fact the victims of Stalinist oppression.
It is sad that the West, not only Germany, did not take a lesson from Munich Conference of 1938.
Are the German armed forces any good? That might be the sort of deterrence the Russians understand.
Despite echoes of the Wehrmacht, a force whose members are nearly all dead, 80 odd years on.
Short answer is "no, they aren't". The arms inventory is a tiny fraction of Russia's (despite having a much greater GDP than Russia) and most of it doesn't work. More importantly, there is little will among the German people to defend themselves.