Merz should win the most seriously spineless European politician of the year.
Idk, I would probably say that Netanjahu is even worse.
He doesn’t have nearly the power or reach of Putin. Also, Putin’s been at this for a long time.
you forgot mr. genocide down in zion…
Putin, in terms of a single person (don’t forget Israel has had multiple
dictatorsPMs), IS the biggest war criminal alive.Only because USA presidents only last 8 years in power at most
@ICastFist …. we all hope. Wasn’t there also a term limit in Russia at some point?
Perhaps you forgot Mr. Genocides (plural) in Beijing. It goes to show that we should be careful with hyperboles. This isn‘t a contest after all.
There’s only one genocide going on right now. And it’s in Palestine. There’s no genocide in Xinjiang. I was there last year. There’s 24.000 mosques in Xinjiang, Muslims all over and none will tell you they are being mass murdered. Propaganda from the people who are actually commuting genocide…
That’s just not true. Russia is (or at least was, I’ll admit to not keeping up as much with Ukraine) doing genocide as well. Entire towns have been slaughtered and children were taken away to be reeducated, that’s genocide too.
The Satellite Photos of Uyghur Concentration Camps tell a different story…
Satellite photos don’t tell shit. Travel there.
Title is for the “most serious war criminal of our time”. There’s no hyperbole here. It literally is a genocide measuring contest.
But that‘s the problem. Just because that lunatic of a leader frames it like one doesn‘t mean we have to participate in it.
Or…you can rightfully point out that he should apply the same standard to Netanyahu, since the death toll in Gaza is several times higher than it is in Ukraine. After all, by his own words, there should be “zero tolerance” when dealing with war criminals.
If that is how he chooses to frame it…then make sure the frame encompasses all the available data.
Comes easily at the second place. But it’s only one nation, while Putin is killing several nations at the same time.
Why easily? E.g. the Iraq war was also without UN mandate and depending on analysis could have more civilian casualities.
A genocide is a worse thing than “just” killing several hundred thousand civilians. And of course, just alone the destruction of Mariupol gets at least close to 100 000 killed civilians, possibly more.
Lets keep to real figures please. Ukrainian sources estimated shortly after that around 25,000 people were killed and a later independent investigation found likely evidence for around 10,000 killed.
Now the number of zeroes is correct. Thanks!
“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” (a famous person from what’s now called Palestine)
In what world is Merz even close to as bad as Putin, let alone significantly worse. The worsed he did was deliver weapons and political backing to Israel. Putin has started the largest war in Europe since WW2 and is activly involved in a lot more conflicts like the massive civil war in Sudan and Syria.
I don’t think the point of that quote is to measure who has the most or least amount of wood, but to point out the hypocrisy of complicity and selective condemnation.
The line before it is: " For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
So yes it is clearly about measuring who has the most wood. As in if you have more, then do not judge. Merz is fine in that respect. He has claimed to stop German weapon deliveries to Israel, due to Israeli war crimes in Gaza. So clearly he is even willing to be judged on that. Besides that he says and does a lot of bs, but nothing which comes close to war crimes afaik.
If you want to talk about measurement, then you cannot deny that Germany is complicit in war crimes still to this day (as is my own nation). By all means condemn Russia, but while facilitating a settler colonial project then the label of hypocrisy always applies, which is what the quote I posted refers to.
Your words on Merz would have more credibility if his moves didn’t have so many loopholes. It will take more than symbolic gestures to break the ties between industrial genocide and German tech: https://mondoweiss.net/2025/08/germanys-declaration-to-stop-sending-weapons-to-israel-symbolic-gesture-or-major-shift/
At what point did I deny that?
You said, “Merz is fine in that respect”.
Yes I believe that Merz delivering weapons to Israel is less evil then the many crimes Putin has committed. Nicaragua is also suing Germany over the matter, so in a way Merz is actually being judged for it.
Tough words for Mr MealyMouth. I wish he would do that more often.
I’m the opposite. I wish he would stfu. Idealy forever.
Merz’s questionable judgement aside, what would we gain from having a nice ranking of war criminals?
Shouldn’t our spineless politicians concentrate on trying to stop war criminals (all of them) instead of starting academic discussions on who’s the “most serious”?
Shouldn’t our spineless politicians concentrate on trying to stop war criminals (all of them) instead of starting academic discussions on who’s the “most serious”?
It really is not just academic. Resources to stop war criminals are limited. So generally speaking given the choice it is better to prevent a million deaths then a 100.
Limited resources are a very underhanded, if quite popular, excuse to justify inaction.
“We don’t have infinite resources, so we can’t do anything” is something that’s been repeated over and over in all contexts (and, lately, especially by the right to justify sweeping the migration problem under the rug by paying off Libya/Turkey/etc instead of actually doing something about it).
People (and countries) should be only allowed to complain about limited resources after they actually exhausted their resources and done all they could: first you do all you can, and only then you can complain that you couldn’t do more.
Resources to stop war criminals are limited.
Can you please explain what the actual fuck you’re talking about? What are “resources” here and who is “allocating” them?
Context? As in “who” our dear politicians and resources as in military, intelligence, police and economic resources, which can be used to stop war criminals. Basically what somebody like Merz can do to stop what is going on in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar and so on.
Merz’s questionable judgement aside, what would we gain from having a nice ranking of war criminals?
a Top Trumps war criminals
Yeah, the only ranking in that regard should be “is” and “is not”. Everything else seems like a distinction without a difference.
- Since the [Russian] invasion began, 14,054 civilians, including 730 children, have been killed, while more than 36,000 have been injured, he said, also acknowledging the conflict’s spillover into the Russian Federation where there have been civilian casualties in Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk.
- Slovenia’s delegate [emphasized] that Moscow’s second-largest air assault of the war on 28 August saw 620 drones and missiles launched mostly at Kyiv, destroying residential buildings and damaging the European Union delegation and British Council premises. These are “not military targets”, but densely populated areas, she stressed.
- Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine, told the Council that the Russian Federation’s 28 August assault [were] killing 25 people — including 4 children — and wounding 63 others. Among the victims was a girl “not yet three years old, born under Russian shelling in October 2022, and killed by Russian shelling in August 2025”, she said.
So many to choose from
Israel has murdered more children than all other killings in the same time period. Also more bombs dropped on Gaza than on Tokyo in WWII.
Sudan has some estimates of half a million children starved to death in that period. Putins war in Ukraine is also extremely deadly. Add to that the civil wars in Myanmar and Syria.
OP quotes these numbers:
Since the [Russian] invasion began, 14,054 civilians, including 730 children, have been killed, while more than 36,000 have been injured,
That’s a Sudan rounding error. Why does the difference in attention not worry people?
Netanyahu
I’d say Putin and Netanyahu are about the same. Two illiberal state leaders seeking to genocide a people.
The global support makes Netanyahu worse
Netanjahu defends Israel against Hamas terrorists. And Hesbolla terrorists in Lebanon. Why is he a war criminal in your opinion?
@glowing_hans you don’t expect to he taken seriously, do you? 😂
#everyone! Here’s a disinformation campaigner!
There is no genocide in gaza, just a hostage rescue operation.
You can say “I’m retarded” with only two words. Save your fingers the effort.
Permaban.
Lots of zionists around here lately, whats up with that
Follow the money.
Good job derailing with antisemitic dog whistles.
Zionist ≠ Zionists. Why most forms of zionism do suck, reform zionists are an exception. Sadly they are a minority. Reform zionists believe in equal rights for both Israelis and Palestinians and seek to end the blatant human rights violations in Israel and Palestine while not being against the existence of Israel (hence why it is still Zionism).
Reform Zionism, also known as Progressive Zionism, is the ideology of the Zionist arm of the Reform or Progressive branch of Judaism. The Association of Reform Zionists of America is the American Reform movement’s Zionist organization. Their mission “endeavors to make Israel fundamental to the sacred lives and Jewish identity of Reform Jews. As a Zionist organization, the association champions activities that further enhance Israel as a pluralistic, just and democratic Jewish state.” In Israel, Reform Zionism is associated with the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism.
Reform Zionism is practically no different from Liberal Zionism. You can’t have a Jewish State in historic Palestine unless you solve the ‘demographic problem’ to ensure there is a Jewish majority. That’s also why they have no mention of Right of Return and support the Two-State Solution, to keep the vast majority of Palestinians out of this Jewish State. Not to mention that the Two-State Solution has no basis in reality. It’s a One-state reality, an apartheid state. The Two-State has always been used by Zionists to justify denying Right of Return and Palestinian Sovereignty while the more honest ‘right-wing’ Zionists (Zionism is a fascist ideology, it’s all right-wing ) continue the settlement projects.
If they genuinely wanted equal rights for Palestinians, they would be anti-zionist. Same as Ilan Pappe or Avi Schlaim or Adi Callai or any of the other anti-zionist Israelis.
lol this one is literally glowing, you can see them in the dark
Don’t forget the Kims.
Funny how using the superlative form (“most”) he’s sending us into a tailspin about who is “the most serious war criminal”. As if that ordering really matters. War criminals being bad is like pedophiles being bad. Sure some are “worse” than others, but all of them are fucking creeps that need to be brought to heel.
Putin, Netanyahu, Trump, past US presidents (yea even that one), Blair, etc. All fuckfaces that every reasonable person should be denouncing.
of our time, i’d definitely put Netanyahu up there
And just like the orange one he is allowed to continue actively being
I may be applying a stereotype, but having a German calling someone “serious” could, if anything, even sound like a compliment.
What does it even mean? A “serious crisis” or a “serious medical condition” is a negatively charged, but not “serious criminal”.
Arséne Lupin is a serious criminal and that’s a compliment. I am VERY curious about the choice of words.
Also @talkingpumpkin@lemmy.world is right, if this is a ranking, it is pointless if not counterproductive.
- Its translated
- Merz doesnt speak English well enough to make such a nuanced comment
The original quote is “den vielleicht schwersten Kriegsverbrecher unserer Zeit”.
I think “most severe war criminial” would be a better translation.
Is the word in questions “schwersten”?
Yep. And it has like a dozen different English translations, depending on context.
maybe he’s just calling him fat
I’ve watched a lot of German documentaries and I’m 99% sure he’s actually saying he wants Putin to take a dump in his mouth.
Wait for China and North Korea, together with India …
With a self reported civilian death ratio at over 80%, Netanyahu wins this award by far.
