This year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to build Europe’s strongest army – a tall order for a country whose military has undergone years of neglect.
The coalition government is hoping a new bill agreed upon last week will help make this a reality, bolstering Germany’s forces in the face of the perceived threat from Russia and a significant shift in US foreign policy.
The sweeping new reforms will see Germany attempt to boost its numbers to 260,000 soldiers, up from around 180,000 currently, in addition to an extra 200,000 reservists, by 2035.
Germany. Here we go again.
Maybe we should start writing down our history, so we won’t make the same mistakes again, for when the next generation zones out when their grandparents try to tell them how to avoid the bad old days from happening again. Of course, we’d have to teach people to read, and train up their Critical Thinking Skills. That sounds like a lot of work, but more importantly, it will cost too much money. Those Sociopathic Oligarchs’ yachts need a lot maintenance. Can’t be wasting that money on education for the poorest 98%.
Fuck it, a world war every 50 to 100 years is necessary to control the population level.
Germany the nation isn’t the problem. Fascism is the problem. There is nothing special about Germany that makes it any more or less susceptible to fascism than anyone else. 1930s Germany happened to have especially fertile ground, but it could have been a lot of other places.
Although AfD does need to be told to go the fuck away.
You say that as the AfD, ANOTHER militant German political entity, is on the rise.
This what they call “History repeating itself.”
But Germany is hardly unique in that regard. Both now and then.
Not unique, but still how safe is to create a new powerful army when the forces against democracy could just democratically take control of it?
Not very. Ultimately, that’s an argument for anarchism.
Neglect? They voluntarily kept it low-profile
Fuck it, why not. What are the chances they try it three times in a row?
I dunno, third time’s the charm after all…
Belgium, Poland, Austria, etc
Lol tankie, as these people if they are in danger
Ah yes, conscripts. They make the best armies.
France: “u wot mate?”
Tall order for a country whose birth rates are cratering
I did Nazi that coming
WWII jokes aside, it’s absolutely inane that Germany is actually taking “threats from Russia” seriously. It’s one thing to keep their military in shape, but nothing we’ve seen from Russia makes expanding it even remotely necessary. Spend this momey on the poor you corporate stooge. And let’s not get into the demographic crisis these idiots are exacerbating with their treatment of immigrants.
Better to take it seriously and nothing happens than to ignore it and suffer the consequences.
What if they take it seriously and suffer the other consequences? Because remember, the biggest threat to Germany currently isn’t Russia or China or even America; it’s the far right. Expanding the military this much would put a lot of strain on the budget and inevitably come at the cost of social welfare, further fueling the far right as living conditions get worse and worse. And on top of that taking healthy young adults away from a workforce that already needs more people to do something wholly unproductive can’t be good for the economy. You’re completely ignoring the opportunity cost here; there are simply more important and pressing problems that deserve attention and budget than a hypothetical with nothing to back it up.
A problem we frequently observe is when armies are given a giant hammer they suddenly start looking at the world map as a bunch of nails. Next thing you know Germany is invading Iran for Israel and not “defending against Russia”.
Remember the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions.
So your argument is to better be the “nail” and let the soviet “hammer” fuck you up?
Europe was already spending four times more on their military than Russia before the remilitarization push.
And they are going to get hammered anyways because their weapons investments are largely going towards American and Israeli companies.
Prepare for some massive lies and a sheepish acknowledgement you were lied to afterwards.
What lies are you referring to? The fact that Russia invaded its neighbour Ukraine and is becoming more and more aggressive towards other post-soviet counties? That lie?
Yeah except right now the biggest issue the Bundeswehr faces is equipment and troop readiness. A report came around 2022 and made noise. After a short exercise 18 modern Puma IVF had been out of action for lack of spare parts on relatively minor issues. And that was on the 10th Panzer division which was earmarked for deployment in Lithuania, not a low priority unit.
More bodies are nice for an army. But those come after the infrastructure has been fixed for what already exist
Hold up a sec…
