i don't know what people are expecting of Germany
1. The state of the Bundeswehr is really bad, we can't even defend ourselves if it was needed
2. Sending weapons to countries in a state of conflict is not legally possible by German law
3. Germany being involved in any conflict that isn't in the role of humanitarian aid is *extremely* unpopular among the German population
4. German soldiers aren't going to be involved in any combat capacity regardless
Even when Germany was involved in Afghanistan because the U.S invoked the NATO treaty, soldiers were barely in any combat roles. Germany's current limits/foreign policiy regarding this isn't based on the pipeline, even if the pipeline didn't exist, all above points would still be the case. There has always been a fuck ton of U.S propaganda that Germany is held hostage by Russian gas, which is false, and the only reason the U.S' propaganda efforts were so is because the U.S has always wanted to sell LNG to Germany. The main reason for Germany's current stance are the above points.
I'm never going to give any weight to U.S criticism of pipeline because of the ulterior motives the U.S has always had with it
New York Times is spewing USA state department propaganda. If the pipeline didn't even exist, the policy and strategy of Germany will be practically the same, this an issue that is much further detached and has to do with cultural changes and expectations than anything else. Imagine if Germany had the second or third strongest army in the world (which it could), and would be forceful in Europe, imagine how much people would lose their minds then. It's a catch 22 issue, New York Times would be running opposite bullshit if Germany actually did invest and grow it's military to be the security force of Europe
