The Chancellor is undoubtedly right about one thing: it would have been a mistake to go it alone on the tank issue.

However, in the wake of the decision to deliver Leopard-type main battle tanks to Ukraine, the greatest danger was not a German advance.

After all, the Chancellor's name is Scholz, and his party is the SPD.

Up until a few days ago, the greater risk was that it would become lonely around Berlin because it remained fixated on its slogan “no going it alone”.

The danger of a growing rift between supporters of Ukraine has been averted with the Chancellor's announcement that he will deliver the tank himself and allow other states to do the same.

The unity demonstrated by the countries that want to join the Panzer Alliance is important because of the risk-sharing vis-à-vis Moscow.

Also, only such a number of tanks come together that has military relevance.

shoulder to shoulder?

Not without the USA: For Berlin, stepping in step with Washington is more important than for Paris and London, because Germany is dependent on the American protective umbrella in a confrontation with a power that openly threatens to use nuclear weapons.

It took a while to get the Americans, who were also hesitant about battle tanks, on board.

It crunched audibly.

But now Secretary of Defense Pistorius can say with more authority that Germany and America stand shoulder to shoulder.

In Ramstein an Abrams fit between them.

Fears that the delivery of western main battle tanks could lead to an escalation of the war also seem to have diminished.

This danger was cited not only by Scholz, but especially by Scholz, as a reason for having to think very carefully about which weapons should be made available to Ukraine.

Driver or Driven?

The federal government must now flatly violate the commandment it has also made itself, not to weaken its own armed forces through deliveries to Ukraine.

But that happens with every tank that the "bare" Bundeswehr has to give up, whether it's called the Howitzer 2000, Marder or Leopard.

Nevertheless, it is right to deliver the most powerful German tank weapon to the heavily beleaguered Ukraine as quickly as possible.

Germany's security is also being defended on the Dnipro.

If the Ukrainians, with the support of the West, do not succeed in stopping Putin on his revisionist campaign, others will feel his hot breath on their necks.

And in the event of an alliance, Germany would have to do what, as Scholz affirmed, it does not want to do in the Ukraine war: send its own soldiers.

Was Scholz a driver or a driven person?

In the SPD, a heroic epic is already being written about the silent blacksmith of the Panzer Alliance.

In Warsaw, it is more likely that Polish pressure brought about the Panzerwende in Berlin.

In any case, the debate about which weapons should be used to support Ukraine will continue: after the leopard is before the tornado, whether the chancellor will rule it out or not.

One can only hope that the allies have learned from the tank dispute: not to argue publicly and not to waste time that Ukraine no longer has.