today, germany's new defense minister, christy lambert visited the pentagon in washington. here's us defense secretary lloyd austin, speaking earlier today. the journey has shown tremendous leadership at this crucial moment. your translation decisions to bolster germany's armed forces or vote and historic. we look forward to working with you to implement these changes. we also salute germany's decision to send security assistance. so you write your example help to inspire other allies and partners to follow my next guess. tonight is matthew car, niche. nick, he is the chief europe correspondent for politico here in berlin. matthew, it's good to have you on the program. you wrote, i dare say a blistering piece about german politicians and russia this week with the headline putins useful german idiots. and you write, it shouldn't surprise any one that berlin spent the past 16 years with its feet firmly planted on the wrong side of the divide over how to handle russia. explained to our viewers what you mean there. well, i mean that it's been cleared to many people in europe an