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Old 05-12-23, 07:55 AM   #1966
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A too sensitive beast.

https://www-faz-net.translate.goog/a...pp#pageIndex_5

If I were the supreme decision-making top-of-the-food-chain commander of an army and wanted to buy a new IFV, I would look at the Puma's tremendous firepower and superior agility, and put it up against its extreme susceptibility to breakdowns and costly maintenance logistics - and I would reject the Puma for the latter reason.

In war, robust workhorses are needed that are tough and persistent in any weather, not neurotic, highly bred racehorse primadonnas that stay in the barn every other day because the barn temperature was two degrees too low at night and her sensible Highnesses didn't dream pleasantly enough. The Puma is just way too sensitive and way too logistics-intensive for my taste. I also do not like that the Bundeswehr cannot alone maintain the Puma, but depends essentially on industry workers being present and doing the work. And when I think that chains and gears only last a fraction of the kilometers that they do on the Leopard, then they have to be completely replaced, then I really have a crisis. Who designs such nonsense...? What will happen to such luxury logistics chains if there is a war? War means scarcity, not abundance. Combat means maximum stress, wear and tear, not maximum conservation.
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Old 05-12-23, 08:49 AM   #1967
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird View Post
If I were the supreme decision-making top-of-the-food-chain commander of an army
Woe be to that army for sure.
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Old 05-12-23, 02:52 PM   #1968
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^ lol

The "Puma" is way too much complicated. It will be a real good weapon if anyone could master it, but normal people won't.
It is completely integrated in a net of other forces, but honestly one soldier in a hundred is able to handle it. This from someone who has to work with it on a daily basis. (Not me. Thank God.)
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Old 05-12-23, 06:41 PM   #1969
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The guy is an American from Portland, he came to Germany in 2016 and is a (now retired) pro American Football player in a German AF team. He has done many videos on Germany, I now have watched some, and mostly, all in all, he gets it right. Its entertaining to see this place of mine through his eyes. Here is his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@NALFVLOGS/videos
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Old 05-14-23, 06:28 AM   #1970
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I am not sure whether Google will translate this sufficiently well, so I post a German and English translation link.
Its about the wanted ugliness of Berlin, and what it tells about the ideology of the politics behind it.
I know some nice places in Berlin, but all in all I am so very happy that I am out of that cloaca.

The author uses some creative German vocabulary, I am not sure Google will translate that well.




https://www.publicomag.com/2023/02/b...s-neue-berlin/




https://www-publicomag-com.translate..._x_tr_pto=wapp
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Old 05-16-23, 06:33 AM   #1971
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So-yeon Schröder-Kim, wife of Gerhard Schröder, ex-Chancellor of Germany, lost her job after the couple visited the Russian embassy on 9th May.

She worked for the North Rhine-Westphalian company as a representative for South Korea and was reportedly repeatedly warned that she should not voice opinions on politically sensitive topics in her role.

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Old 05-16-23, 06:41 AM   #1972
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Poland investigates former German Chancellor Schröder's involvement in Russia's invasion of Ukraine

May 11, 2023, 05:44 PM


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Polish authorities are looking into the role former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder may have played in helping Moscow prepare for its invasion of Ukraine, Polish news outlet RMF24 reported on May 11.

According to the report, Poland’s National Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating if Schröder may have used his position in the Russian energy sector to exert undue pressure on EU countries and Ukraine. In particular, there’s concern that the former chancellor could have used his influence to help Russia browbeat the EU into refraining from supporting Ukraine militarily.

Documents from the case indicate that Schröder did not sever ties with the Kremlin after the beginning of the full-scale invasion and continued to hold positions in Russian state energy companies – until the European Parliament threatened him with personal sanctions.

On May 20, 2022, Schröder resigned from the board of directors of Rosneft, after the European Parliament announced the former official was facing personal sanctions.



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Old 05-23-23, 03:41 PM   #1973
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Now the main battle tanks that were handed over to Ukraine are being reordered - but nothing more. A further purchase option is only theory so far.

This model designation has not played a role in the months-long debates about military aid to Kiev. This has been about the most diverse variants of Leopard tanks, which were either exported to Ukraine from industrial stocks or supplied directly to the Ukrainian army from the Bundeswehr.

But reordering of these older or somewhat younger types is "no longer possible," according to the relevant contract documents. Now the Bundeswehr is are getting the very latest Leopard 2A8 as a replacement.

The decision will be made this Wednesday in the Budget Committee of the Bundestag. It is important if only because the Leopard 2 is known to be "the main weapon of the German tank force," according to the bill obtained by the Tagesspiegel. The gaps caused by the deliveries to Ukraine must be filled as quickly as possible, especially where the ability to defend the country is directly affected.

The Bundeswehr handed over a total of 18 of its most modern 2A6 main battle tanks to Ukraine after resistance to tank deliveries in the chancellery collapsed at the end of January under the impression of massive Russian attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. It is now to receive 18 of them again - at a purchase price of 525.6 million euros.

A good half a billion euros does not have to be the end of the line in this case either. As in the case of approvals for the new F35 fighter jets, the PZH 2000 self-propelled howitzers and the Puma infantry fighting vehicle, Boris Pistorius' (SPD) Federal Ministry of Defense is once again pointing to possible delays and cost increases. For example, it reckons with around 36 million euros a year in "follow-up or utilization costs" alone.

"Depending on further developments on the world market, particularly in the area of electronic components and other raw materials, the risk of a delay is assessed by the BMVg as medium to high," it also says. A contractual penalty shifts it at least partially away from the taxpayer and instead to the manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW).

The first Leopard2A8 is to be handed over to the Bundeswehr no later than 26 months after the order, which can take place immediately after approval by the Bundestag. A further ten months later, in the summer of 2026, the so-called firm order portion of the contract is then to be completed.

But it could also be for significantly more: The contract, which will be voted on by the Bundestag this Wednesday, includes an option for up to 105 additional main battle tanks at a price of another 2.3 billion euros. According to the contract documents, KMW has offered to produce an additional two main battle tanks per month from June 2026 onwards - provided the government exercises its option now.

This is apparently the order of magnitude that the force itself considers necessary. Currently, the Bundeswehr has 328 Leopard 2s - far fewer main battle tanks than during the Cold War.

CDU budget politician Ingo Gädechens points to the government's ambitious plans "to have the first fully operational division in place by 2025 and another one as early as 2027 - which will require, among other things, additional Leopard 2 tanks. Why not order enough on this occasion to cover the need?

He criticized the fact that "only what has been surrendered is being procured - despite all the Sunday speeches to the contrary, the German government is unable to make budget funds available for anything else.

[Tagesspiegel]


What remains of Babble-Olaf's boastful talk from last year? Schall - und ansonsten nicht einmal Rauch.
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Old 05-25-23, 01:48 PM   #1974
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They cannot hide it any longer: Germany has very officially now sled into a recession. The economy shrunk in Q4 2022 by -0.5%, and in Q1 2023 by -0.3%.


Since Q1 the trend must have worstend, for a secret the government tries to hide or deny is that a growing and already alarming high numbers of companies have scrambled to leave Germany. Some point to the worsening labor situation and poor energy prospects, others are lured to the U.S. by the American investment program, while still others say they see no prospects for themselves in the medium and long term if the country that takes them in quite actually wants to do away with itself.


Also cafefully hid from the public's awareness is that we have a great net brain drain, since years, and it has constantly growen in the past 5+ years at least. It adds to the companies' bad employement situation. There are too many jobs that do not need just any worker, but need qualifed specialists and academically well-trained head-workers. But these get ripped off with taxes and payments and high electricity costs. So what do they do? They pack their young families, and leave to countries that treat them better, offer better working conditions, and allow them more wealth.
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Old 05-26-23, 07:53 AM   #1975
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AfD is climbing up in the polls says a Danish newspaper, 1 out of 4 German could put their vote on this party.

Following is translated from this news paper and it's only a little part(behind paywall)

Quote:
The party flirts with expressions from the Hitler era and has sharpened its far-right course. Now the voters are flocking
One in four Germans in a new survey is considering voting for the right-wing national party AfD. Most recently, the party's chairman held a voter meeting with a far-right bannerman, but that apparently does not scare the voters. Germany's intelligence service warns in strong terms.
They have also a new motto "Alice für Deutschland"

Edit
it shocked me I thought the German had learned their lessons
End edit

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Old 05-26-23, 09:36 AM   #1976
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Recent INSA and other mainstream polls have the AfD at 17% in national elections, one point more than the Greens. Sympoathy for the AfD probably goes beyond that 17%, but not every sympathisers automatically puts his sympathy into a real vote.

I have no sympathy for the AfD, but with this worthless political garbage at the helm currently forming the government and having declared an economic and fiscal war against the German population, it is impossible to side with the latter against the former. And so I end up wishing them both to hell.

Foreign press does not really fully cover and understand how desastrous the climate policy enforced by the Greens really is, its a massacre. If they get their will, the sh!t will hit the fan. Not just in the economy, but also in society. What the Greens press for must necessarly cause a massive social collapse and a redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the ultra rich like only few seem capable to imagine: The past two weeks I got word from two of us five house owners: they will sell their appartments, probably with losses, because they cannot shoulder the enforced investemewnt costs the govenrment wants to impose on us all. And I expect it will not be private persons buying these appartments, but some real estate company - because only these can afford these costs.

So, it is no wonder that the government parties are in a steep dive and the AfD as the only real confronting opposition (the CDU is just a lame joke) gains points every month. They must not even do anything for it, they must just be there and be different than the established parties.
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Old 05-26-23, 09:50 AM   #1977
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Thank you Skybird.

Yes I forgot the most important question-WHY! Why 17% or so could think of putting their vote on AfD.

You gave a good explanation.

There must be some other serious oppositions to the traffic light constellation, than AfD.

I would rather stay home, enjoy a good movie, with a pizza than vote for AfD. instead of putting my vote on one of the traffic light.

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Old 05-27-23, 08:49 PM   #1978
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Did Merkel Pave the Way for the War in Ukraine?
The former German chancellor is unapologetic as critics reexamine her deals with Putin and reluctance to punish his previous aggressions.


Bojan Pancevski
May 26, 2023 12:01 am ET




Quote:
Dressed in an imperial purple blazer, Angela Merkel beamed at a ceremony in April as she received Germany’s highest honor, recognizing the achievements of her 16-year chancellorship. It was her first appearance on a live broadcast since leaving office more than a year ago. She was at peace with herself, she said. She now had time to indulge her long-standing interest in the Renaissance, and though politics had the reputation of being a “snake pit,” she added, she could recall joyful moments from her time in power.

For any other leader, receiving the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit at Berlin’s understated Bellevue Palace would have marked the crowning of a legacy. Only two other people had previously received the honor: Konrad Adenauer, the first post-World War II chancellor, and Helmut Kohl, Merkel’s own mentor.

But the award kicked off a controversy. Adenauer and Kohl would be remembered as great chancellors, said Wolfgang Schäuble, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union who twice served as a key minister in her governments. For Merkel, he said, “It’s too early.”



The ceremony belatedly jolted Germany into reappraising Merkel’s role in the years leading up to today’s European crises—and the verdict has not been positive. As Vladimir Putin wages a war of aggression in Ukraine, Merkel’s critics argue that the close ties she forged with Russia are partly responsible for today’s economic and political upheaval. Germany’s security policies over the past year have been, in many ways, a repudiation of her legacy. Earlier this month, Berlin announced a new $3 billion military aid package to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia, and an approaching NATO summit is expected to discuss how to include Ukraine in Europe’s security architecture—an extension of the alliance that Merkel consistently resisted.

Merkel was a key architect of the agreements that made the economies of Germany and its neighbors dependent on Russian energy imports. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has destroyed that strategic partnership, forcing Germany to find its oil and natural gas elsewhere at huge costs to business, government and households. Berlin was able to secure enough natural gas to carry its economy through last winter, but it is unclear how Germany will meet its long-term supply needs.
Merkel’s successive governments also squeezed defense budgets while boosting welfare spending. Lt. Gen. Alfons Mais, commander of the army, posted an emotional article on his LinkedIn profile on the day of the invasion, lamenting that Germany’s once-mighty military had been hollowed out to such an extent that it would be all but unable to protect the country in the event of a Russian attack.

Most controversially, former allies of Merkel and other experts say that her refusal to stop buying energy from Putin after he seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014—she instead worked to double gas imports from Russia—emboldened him to finish the job eight years later.



At an event last year, Merkel recalled that after annexing Crimea, Putin had told her that he wanted to destroy the European Union. But she still forged ahead with plans to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, linking Germany directly to Siberia’s natural gas fields, in the face of protests from the U.S. Merkel’s government also approved the sale of Germany’s largest gas storage facilities to Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was set to double Russian gas exports to Germany at a time when the country already depended on Putin for 55% of its gas supply. The pipeline was built but never came online, and it was later scrapped by Merkel’s successor because of the war in Ukraine.
Since leaving office, Merkel has defended the pipeline project as a purely commercial decision. She had to choose, she said, between importing cheap Russian gas or liquefied natural gas, which she said was a third more expensive.

After Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, then NATO secretary general, warned her against making Germany more dependent on a rogue Putin, who had just occupied and annexed part of a European nation. For Putin, he said, the pipeline “had nothing to do with business or the economy—it was a geopolitical weapon.”

Officials who served under Merkel, including Schäuble and Frank-Walter Steinmeier
(her former foreign minister and now Germany’s federal president), have apologized or expressed regret for their roles in these decisions. They believe that Merkel’s policies empowered Putin without setting boundaries to his imperial ambitions.


Merkel, by contrast, has acknowledged no mistakes and offered no apology in interviews since leaving office. She declined to be interviewed for this article.

At the time her policies were made, they reflected the dominant view among German politicians and industrialists, who saw trade as the main source of growth for the German economy and did not think the country could interact just with Western-style democracies. Merkel has also spoken of her conviction that economic engagement with authoritarian countries could bring about a rapprochement.

Merkel didn’t react when Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly invited her last April to visit Bucha, the site of alleged Russian war crimes, to see what he described as the results of her policy of concessions to Putin. Though she has condemned the invasion of Ukraine as barbaric, she also has urged negotiations with Putin.

In a speech last September, she said the late Chancellor Kohl would not only have supported Ukraine but ”would also think about what currently appears unthinkable, simply unimaginable—namely, how to develop something like relations with and to Russia again.” Delivered just as international organizations were launching investigations into Russian atrocities, the suggestion of rebuilding ties to Moscow struck some critics as, at the least, ill-timed.



Joachim Gauck, who was president of Germany when Putin first invaded Ukraine in 2014, said Merkel’s decision to boost energy imports from Russia in the wake of Putin’s aggression was clearly a mistake. “Some people recognize their mistakes earlier, and some later,” he said.
That mistake had its roots in another decision by Merkel: Her move to greatly accelerate Germany’s planned phasing out of nuclear energy in 2011, in response to the Fukushima disaster in Japan. The gap in energy supply created by this dramatic shift meant that Germany had to import more energy, and it had to do so as cheaply as possible. This meant becoming dependent on Russian natural gas, said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who served as defense minister under Merkel.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, once picked by Merkel as a possible successor, opposed Nord Stream 2 and tried in vain to rebuild Germany’s depleted armed forces. Her push to meet a NATO target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense, agreed upon after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, was blocked by the chancellery, Kramp-Karrenbauer said.



“We broke the promise to NATO, and I believe this was a big mistake,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said. “We abandoned the lessons of the Cold War. Diplomacy must be accompanied by military strength.”

Merkel’s role in shaping NATO policy toward Ukraine goes back to 2008, when she vetoed a push by the Bush administration to admit Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, said Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official and presidential adviser on Russia.

Merkel instead helped to broker NATO’s open but noncommittal invitation to Ukraine and Georgia, an outcome that Hill said was the “worst of all worlds” because it enraged Putin without giving the two countries any protection. Putin invaded Georgia in 2008 before marching into Ukraine.
After Putin first attacked Ukraine, Merkel led the effort to negotiate a quick settlement that disappointed Kyiv and imposed no substantial punishment on Russia for occupying its neighbor, Hill added. “No red lines were drawn for Putin,” she said. “Merkel took a calculated risk. It was a gambit, but ultimately it failed.”

Some observers believe that the failure to establish red lines and Germany’s continuing economic cooperation encouraged Putin to attempt a full-scale attack in 2022. “OK, so I could get away with that,” Putin concluded in 2014, according to Rasmussen. “So why not continue?”



Merkel still has supporters, and as Germany begins to grapple with her complicated legacy, many still hold a more nuanced view of her role in laying the groundwork for today’s crises.
Joe Kaeser, the former chief executive of the German conglomerate Siemens, worked closely with Merkel and accompanied her and other senior government figures on official travels, including to Russia, where his company was one of the largest foreign investors.

Kaeser, who now chairs the supervisory board of Siemens Energy, a listed subsidiary, agrees that Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas grew under Merkel, but he says that there was—and is—no alternative for powering Europe’s industrial engine at a viable price.

“We didn’t expect that there would be war in Europe with the methods of the 20th century. This never featured in our thinking,” said Kaeser, who himself met Putin several times. He believes that Merkel’s Russia policy was justified. Even Germany’s new government has not found a sustainable and affordable replacement for Russian energy exports, he said, which could lead to deindustrialization.

Many defenders of Merkel say that she merely articulated a consensus. Making her country dependent on Washington for security, on Moscow for energy and on Beijing for trade (China became Germany’s biggest trade partner under her chancellorship) was what all of Germany’s political parties wanted at the time, said Constanze Stelzenmüller of the Brookings Institution.
“Without backing from the U.S.A., which was very restrained at the time, any tougher German reaction to the annexation of Crimea could hardly have been possible,” said Jürgen Osterhammer, a historian whose work on globalization and China has been cited by Merkel as an influence on her thinking.

For her part, Merkel is determined not to rely on historians for the historical record of her tenure. While unwinding from her long years of public service, she told German media, she is working on a memoir under a major publishing contract.

In retirement, Merkel told the German news magazine Der Spiegel, she has watched “Munich,” a Netflix movie about Prime Minister Neville’s Chamberlain’s infamous negotiations with Hitler in the run-up to World War II. Though Chamberlain’s name has become synonymous with the delusions of appeasement, the film offers a more nuanced picture of the British leader as a realist statesman working to postpone the inevitable conflict. That reinterpretation appealed to Merkel, the magazine reported.

She has also made an effort to rejuvenate relations with another retired statesman, President Barack Obama, whom she visited in Washington, D.C., last June. The former leaders enjoyed a museum visit and dinner at his favorite Italian restaurant. After the trip, Merkel complained that the growing criticism she is facing at home betrayed a lack of respect for her role as leader. “It is part of democracy to endure criticism, but my impression is that an American president who’s left office is being treated with greater respect by the public than a German chancellor,” she told Der Spiegel.

In April, Merkel was again asked on stage at a book fair whether she would not reconsider her refusal to admit having made some mistakes. “Frankly,” she responded, “I don’t know whether there would be satisfaction if I were to say something that I simply don’t think merely for the sake of admitting error.”

Bojan Pancevski is The Wall Street Journal’s Germany correspondent.
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Old 05-31-23, 05:57 AM   #1979
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Yesterday I saw a 30 minutes documentary about the Bundeswehr, and they illustrated quite well why so many leave it, early if they are recruits, or bitter and frustrated when they are already with it since many years. A women that was a Eurofighter pilot (honestly said I did not even know or remember we had female fighter pilots in service) just has left the cockpit after 14 years, frustrated and anything but at peace with the Luftwaffe. She quoted miserable personnel policies and lousy leadership as well as an extremely poor ready-status of equipment and unavailable equipment, often leading to situations that training flights were cancelled since no working Eurofighter was available again, and I have read a few years ago that many pilots cannot even get the mandatory minimum of flight hours (how they keep their license then they did not write...).


In mid-June, Germany will see parts of its airspace closed for NATO's biggest military exercise since decades. Civilian flight traffic will be massively affected in the closed air zones (will be cancelled). Hundreds of aircraft of NATO members are currently shuttled into Germany.



Today I read this:

For motorcycle rockers, it's part of the ritual: at a red light, the throttle is turned up to idle. The engine howls, the exhaust smokes, the audience watches a spectacle that could be described as a frenzied standstill. The simulation of motion is also widespread in politics.

The motorcycle rockers of the traffic light coalition look like Boris Pistorius and Eva Högl. With their loudly stated thoughts about reintroducing compulsory military service (Högl: "We have to start the debate now.", Pistorius: Discussion about compulsory service would be "valuable"), they have increased the torque of the debate, admittedly without shifting into gear.

Nothing moves, but it smokes and rattles. The practiced idling politician doesn't change the world, but the next morning's headline does. The advantage of this political simulation is obvious: the only one who really has to make an effort is the paperboy who carries the hot air through the housing estate.

The matter of compulsory military service, which all three parties in today's traffic light coalition voted to suspend in 2011, is well suited for such maneuvers. The demand is risk-free. There are five solid reasons why the federal government and also the business elite are not seriously thinking of re-deciding this issue.

Reason 1: Military justice not guaranteed

Draft justice - that is, the fairness in conscription mandated by the Constitution - was not guaranteed even in the past. Conscription was like a lottery; even in the good old days of the Bundeswehr, only 30 to 40 percent of a cohort found their way into the barracks.
To this day, the Two-Plus-Four Treaty stipulates that the absolute ceiling for German armed forces is set at 370,000. Equality is now causing additional problems: Young women would also have to be conscripted today - in barracks that don't even exist for them.

Reason 2: Bundeswehr currently unable to absorb new personnel

The Bundeswehr in its current state is dysfunctional and cannot absorb new personnel at all.

The report of the military commissioners meticulously records the deficiencies. At the Klotzberg barracks in Idar-Oberstein, for example, 90 men and women have access to only two toilets. The mountain troops report inadequate ski equipment, boat crews complain about a lack of cold weather gear. A large part of the war equipment cannot be used - in the case of helicopters, around 60 percent of all machines.

Reason 3: Compulsory military service would have serious consequences for the labor market

With a shrinking work force that will lose 400,000 workers a year from now on to retirement demographics, it would be madness to draft entire cohorts into the barracks.

In the event of general compulsory military service, an entire cohort - i.e. around 700,000 young people - would be deliberately kept out of the labor market - with serious repercussions also for tax and social security revenues. Germany would wilfully slow down its economic growth.

Reason 4: No capacity for hiring and training recruits

The personnel capacities for recruiting and training recruits no longer exist. With the abolition of compulsory military service, the Bundeswehr has been reduced from 225,000 soldiers to 185,000, and many Bundeswehr sites have been handed over to local authorities, which use the space for housing construction. The district military replacement offices, once responsible for recruitment and mustering, have been dissolved.

Reason 5: "We need professionals"

The most important difference between the conscript army of yesteryear and now is the innovation in military technology. It requires professionals, engineers, software developers, not military unskilled workers. Carlo Masala, a professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, says that today one would have to plan for a training period of 18 months "because the military equipment is so complex." His dictum: "We need professionals."
Conclusion: the "citizen in uniform" is a memory item from the poetry album of the early years. Today, he is only good as an extra in a historical drama. And the compulsory military service that legitimizes it belongs not in the law gazette again, but in the Museum of Contemporary History.


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Old 05-31-23, 07:09 AM   #1980
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The official inflation in Germany dropped to 6.1%, says the German government's statistics office.
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