Matthias Sonn, German Ambassador to Lithuania:

However: now, the war simply couldn’t be more present anywhere than it is in my country. Germany has welcomed more than 800,000 Ukrainian refugees, and more than 120,000 Ukrainian children are in German schools.

…

How does the German perspective differ from the Lithuanian perspective on the Russian war of aggression? It doesn’t.

…

The term “Zeitenwende”, introduced by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 27th, represents not political hyperbole but grim realism. However – another core paradigm stands, unchanged at least, quite possibly reinforced: the unmatched attraction of the liberal, essentially Western, the rules-based world order established between 1945 and 1990. Our Ukrainian fellow Europeans are not just fighting for their sovereign independence as such. Their struggle is also one to live in a democracy, under the rule of law, with the rights and freedoms we can only enjoy in an open society. The alternative is living under the boots of an autocracy directly or indirectly imposed by military force.

Sie sangen gemeinsam »Dem Morgenrot entgegen, ihr Kampfgenossen all« oder das von Rosa Luxemburg aus dem Polnischen übersetzte Lied: »Des Volkes Blut verströmt in Bächen, / Und bitt’re Tränen rinnen drein. / Doch kommt der Tag, da wir uns rächen, / Dann werden wir die Richter sein …« Na ja.

—Wolf Biermann, on his parents as newlyweds, »Warte nicht auf bessre Zeiten!«, (Berlin: Propyläen, 2016), 10.

David Smith, Guardian:

Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, added: “The strategy is pretty obvious. The White House does not trust the president to go out unscripted and doesn’t want to leave the president to his own devices. They just don’t trust him to get out the story clean without a problem.”

But the cautious approach could backfire on 79-year-old Biden, he warned. “It could potentially in the back of voters’ minds question his competency, his energy, his ability to handle the job. It raises questions as to why are you secluding the president, why are you hiding the president, why won’t you let him talk to reporters?

“Are you afraid he’s going to say something bad or is going to come across poorly?

…

Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, said: “The average voter can’t tell whether Biden is doing a press conference or an interview or a speech. It all blurs together to them. But when the midterm election comes closer, that will be problematic. Biden is still a drag on the Democrats. The more that he shifts focus on to anything else, the better off Democrats will be.”

FAZ:

Soweit in der Bundesrepublik der Revolte der Studenten historische Bedeutung zuerkannt wird, gilt das Todesdatum von Benno Ohnesorg als ihr eigentlicher Beginn.

—Ulrich Chaussy, »Rudi Dutschke«, (München: Droemer, 2018), 226.

Friederike Hausmann (damals Dollinger) kümmert sich im Hof des Hauses Krumme Straße 66/67 um den schwer verletzten Ohnesorg. Unter dem Kopf Ohnesorgs sein Transparent mit der Aufschrift: „Autonomie für die Teheraner Universität“.

Jan Oberg:

Most people who conducted security politics decades ago were well-educated and experienced compared with most of today’s security political decision-makers.

This overall intellectual disarmament coupled to ever-higher levels of military armament and the recent talk about the use of nuclear weapons creates a new and extremely dangerous reality for us all.

Ω Ω Ω

Given what they stand for, neither Kissinger nor Burns is – so to speak – my cup of tea. However, in an era in which every discourse of peace has disappeared – or, been disappeared – perhaps some people might listen to people like Kissinger and Burns whose profession has always been more war than peace – but on a solid intellectual foundation?

Their cohesive way of reasoning in a low voice – Kissinger in particular with his world perspective and geo-political professionalism and both with a larger perspective – contrasts most of those who make security political decisions today who often display a frightening lack of knowledge, conceptual foundation and ability to look at things in a larger perspective – time as well as space.

There is a clarity of mind growing out of a reservoir of comprehensive knowledge and personal experience.

Ω Ω Ω

Interesting is also Kissinger’s emphasis on how counterproductive it would be – actually, is – for the United States to behave in a way that makes Russia and China come more strongly together against the US. One does not get the impression that there are any NATO or EU decision-makers who have looked that far in time and space while meting out the punishment of Russia right after its invasion of Ukraine.

Philadelphia Inquirer: