Speaking today at the lower house of parliament, German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked up the idea of dramatic increases in military spending for the nation, with an eye toward reaching the percentages that the US has sought to mandate on NATO member nations.
Germany is presently the ninth largest military power in the world, and the fourth largest economy by GDP. The US has sought to require all NATO member nations to spend at least 2% of their GDP annually on their military. If Germany does so, it would spend more on its military than anyone else in Europe, including Russia.
Exactly why Germany would need or even want such a large military is unclear, as they are on extremely good terms with all of their neighbors, and the German public is still strongly averse to international military adventures that would see large number of troops deployed abroad.
Merkel is, however, trying to establish herself as the “leader” of Western liberalism, and her view of that includes outspoken support for international interventionism, and attacking US President-elect Donald Trump for not being sufficiently dedicated militarily to NATO.
Good. With stupid stuff like this, hopefully she’ll lose the election.
Merkel is a travesty on two stout legs.
Sly way to slip in the sexist comment.
I can tell you that the German military is in very bad standing around here. It’s actually a good thing you can say about Germany. The “Bundeswehr” is underfunded, ridiculed and nobody knows what it is good for. The general conscription, thankfully, is not actually real anymore; one can avoid it as far as I know (I could).
On the other hand, I think paramilitary tendencies are on the up. It’s underground-ish, but one senses it is going on. Also we have a LOT of foreigners now due to the temporary asylum practice (which is insane in its own right – those people are constantly afraid of deportation back to the wars they came from).
Also there is a lot of hate on foreigners in many circles. Obviously these two facts do not mix well. Suffice to say, nothing mixes well in Germany. I have a whole “home” full of refugees next to my place, but never really talk to any of them. They’re too shy I guess, or there is some other kind of chasm. The much-hyped “cultural integration” (some people conjure this on end) doesn’t really exist, sadly. There are apparently many attacks on refugee homes, at least you read that in the papers.
Overall, this country does not seem like it knows its way. Rents are up, too (like, unaffordably up), and many Germans too live in (horrible) “emergency shelters”. Estimates are that around 350,000 people in Germany are in one of these shelters (which, depending on the viewpoint, counts as “homelessness”).
TL;DR: Something needs to change. And it’s not a beefed-up military for sure. A new kind of state – or no state at all – would be a *splendid* idea.
Increased German military spending would not at first be an increase to a larger miltitary such as this article questions.
Over half of the German Air Force cannot fly for lack of parts. It has been that way long enough that they have training problems too. The Navy is the same. Even the Army vehicles don’t run.
The German Army was run down to just one division, plus a handful of peacekeeping troops sent to assist the US. The Weimar Army under the detested Versailles Treaty had seven infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions. Their Cold War army had 12 divisions plus. They are a long way from “large.”
They have been spending their money on an infrastructure that they don’t have force structure to use, and for “peacekeeping operations” as auxiliaries in the US wars.
More money alone would do little to strengthen them, except to bring things to what they already are imagined to be. What they really need is restructuring, to use money they have efficiently.
They blame Russia and they ‘re right , but the biggest problem ( threat) for Europe are some Europeans themselves – as M. Schultz , F. Timmermans or Jean Cloude Juncker … and their destructive policy . Policy satisfied fools.