German Peace Movement Leader Argues for Resolution against NATO Exercise

Jan. 20, 2020 (EIRNS)—In a written interview with Sputnik Deutschland, Reiner Braun, co-chairman of the International Peace Bureau, calls for the German Bundestag to pass a resolution to cancel the planned NATO exercise “Defender Europe 2020.” At a time of the highest international tensions, which was aggravated by the Jan. 3 assassination of Iran’s Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the massive deployment of troops for military exercises, which treat Russia as the enemy, is the one thing which the world does absolutely not need, Braun stressed.

The United states will transfer 20,000 troops and 10,000 vehicles for this exercise to carry out war drills in Poland and the three Baltic states. The entire exercise is planned to be held over a period of several months, with most activities in terms of troops and transport on the highways of Germany and Poland during the end of February and early March.

The NATO exercise, the biggest in 25 years, is a provocation right on the eve of the 75th anniversary on the end of World War II, Reiner Braun charges, and stressing that for the first time in more than 75 years, German troops will again be at the western border of Russia, is something which the peace movement cannot and must not accept, against the background of the 27 million war victims which the Soviet Union suffered as a result of the Nazi policies.