GERMANY PERSPECTIVE

Tagesschau uses the verb 'draengt' -- to push, to press -- rather than 'entlaesst' (to fire). This lexical choice matters: it implies George wasn't formally dismissed but forced out, a distinction the German press masters in a country where labor law is sacred. Berlin watches this purge with the particular discomfort of a nation whose Bundeswehr is structurally dependent on the American security umbrella. Germany, which just committed a 100-billion-euro special fund for defense after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, faces an existential question: what's the point of strengthening the Bundeswehr if the American partner purges its generals mid-operation? Germany's caution toward the use of force -- a direct legacy of 1945 -- makes this instability especially troubling. An erratic American command is exactly the scenario that justifies, in Berlin's view, building a European defense pillar, but also the one that makes it urgent.