Herr Leutnant Michael,
Please accept my congratulations for becoming a commissioned officer, and my apologies if any offense was taken by my use of the term "kraut". I forgot our overseas friends that could be reading these comments. While I'm a white devil, others might describe my wife as a "gook". Attempts at brevity and familiarity with crude colloquialisms are easily misconstrued as demeaning, depending upon the context, such as the use of the "N" word and by whom.
To correct your otherwise excellent English, you should have written, "Schroeder said clearly", not "Schroeder said clear". I'm somewhat surprised at your error because making adverbs modify verbs by adding "-ly" to the adjective seems to be the only foolproof construct in English usage. Again, no offense was intended. My German was awful. Now it's pathetic.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we have a dialogue about the increased rate of crime in England, culture and gun control about seven or eight months ago?
Thanks for the update on Germany's armed forces and conscription. Was that the total number on active duty only, or the total number of personnel, active duty and reserve? Adios
Hi and thanks for the congrats.
I was appointed half a year ago, but served since that to train conscripts. The total number is 280,000 soldiers (but will go down to 250,000), 80,000 are drafted men for 9 months, 200,000 men and women are volunteers. Additionally, we could arm 2,000,000 soldiers in case of war (drafted up to the age of 40). But it´s planned to double the army (= 250,000 real reservists, with 75,000 of them training regulary to support the active personnel).
It´s that our concept currently is changed: leaving the huge armies to fight the Reds behind towards a fast response army. However, doing that isn´t easy when the government cuts the spendings on defense in the same time.
I don´t mind you misspelling Schröder´s name, and I don´t care about being called Kraut.
Yes, I think we discussed the higher crime rate in England and America compared to Germany.
Today, the German Federal Assembly elects the new Federal President, and the Christian Democrats with the Free Democrats (economic liberals) have a majority and will vote for Horst Köhler, the former chief of the IMF. It´s good to get a conservative back into the leading positions of the state.
Regards,
Michael