Ursula Von Der Leyen fit to lead NATO?: The Spectator

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Spectator
6 Jul 2023 11:28

Reports suggest that the Biden administration considers Germany's Ursula Von Der Leyen is fit to run NATO because of her alleged prideful history as the German defense minister.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Friday, June 30, 2023. (AP)

A report by The Spectator is comment on revelations by The Telegraph that US President Joe Biden has blocked Britain’s Ben Wallace as Secretary General of Nato and is now pushing for the German Ursula Von Der Leyen.

Many people are wondering what qualifies Ursula to lead the alliance. According to the report, she served as German Defense Minister from 2013 to 2019 and performed a terrible job during that time, raising doubts as to why Biden may be pushing for her as NATO Secretary General.

German army under Von Der Leyen

To begin, The Spectator reports that in 2015, meaning under von der Leyen's leadership, German forces were so under-equipped that they had to use broomsticks instead of machine guns in a NATO drill. In addition, it was discovered that German weapons would not shoot straight at temperatures exceeding 30°C. According to the report, the Bundeswehr's ammunition inventories were so low in 2019 that they would be depleted within two or three days of combat.

Furthermore, German soldiers used cell phones in another exercise the same year because they lacked encrypted communication equipment, and that, was in part due to Ursula's leadership. That said, Bundeswehr soldiers still lack modern radios, night-vision equipment, body armor, radio-integrated helmets, combat boots, and even thermal underwear and waterproof clothing, the report added.

Derk Jan Eppink, a Dutch MEP, has asked Der Leyen to quit as President of the European Commission in February 2021. "I did not vote for your candidacy for President of the European Commission because I knew of your past as a Minister of Defence in Germany," he said, "You have run away but I will say it anyway, you are to be blamed."

The Spectator describes Von Der Leyen's entire career as "a remarkable story of ascension through failure." She is the EU's equivalent of an 'eighteenth-century aristocracy, a princess-ling,' whose father was one of Germany's original EU civil servants and nearly became Chancellor. According to the report, she received her medical doctorate in Hanover in 1991. In 2015, however, it was claimed that over half of her dissertation's pages contained plagiarized material.

The report further argues that every time she messed up in Germany, her ally Angela Merkel, or as the writer put it "the magic ladder of the EU," would float in again to give her another leg up. She was eventually reverse-fired into the role of President of the European Commission, where she of course 'failed and failed at managing the Covid response.'

The Spectator argued that the First Lady pushed her husband to appoint a woman Sec. Gen. to NATO – "because, well, sexism. And so… enter Ursula. Oh well, it’s not as if she would be taking over the defense of the West as a major land war is taking place in Eastern Europe, is it?"

Stoltenberg announces own one-year extension

On another note, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg stated Yesterday, on Tuesday, that his term has been extended for a further year to October 2024, shortly after a decision by the alliance's 31 member states. "Honoured by NATO allies' decision to extend my term as secretary general until 1 October 2024," Stoltenberg said in a tweet. "In a more dangerous world, our alliance is more important than ever," he added.

This comes shortly after NATO member states decided to prolong Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg's mandate, having failed to agree on a new candidate to lead the military bloc.

Former Norwegian Prime Minister Stoltenberg, who has led the Western military alliance since 2014, has already had his term extended by a year, to October 2022, in the aftermath of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Others seen as potential candidates, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, have recently dropped out of contention.