Editor’s letter
Tanks are finally on the way to a grateful Ukraine. After months of refusing to allow its Leopard 2 tanks to be exported to the war zone, Germany relented this week and announced it would send one company of its own tanks, or 14 units, and authorize other European countries to send their Leopards as well (see The world at a glance, p.8). What took so long? It’s partly that Germany wanted the U.S. to share blame for what Russia will surely see as an escalation—Berlin reportedly insisted that it would only commit tanks if Washington did the same. The larger reason, though, lies in the national trauma of the Nazi past. Generations of Germans have been raised as pacifists, and they feel a visceral horror at the idea that…