"They make good stuff in Germany!"...
Posted on 03/02/2009 12:33:58 AM PST by bruinbirdman
The German government is to spend part of its €50bn economic stimulus package on supplies for its armed forces, possibly including submachine guns, military vehicles and underwater mine detectors.
The revelation has upset anti-war politicians and raised questions about the effectiveness of measures intended to help Germany overcome a deep recession.
The defence ministry said it would receive almost €500m ($633m, £444m) from the stimulus package. Although it would spend about half the windfall on the renovation and construction of buildings and barracks, a further €226.2m had been pencilled in to buy weapons, military vehicles and combat systems.
A provisional defence ministry shopping list includes 1,000 Heckler & Koch sub-machine guns (€3m), 34 “Dingo” patrol vehicles (€24.4m), 10 armoured Fennek reconnaissance vehicles (€35m) and five Seafox underwater mine-detection drones (€34m).
The draft was obtained by Griephan, a specialist defence and security publication, and its veracity confirmed to the Financial Times by officials in Berlin.
“The Bundeswehr [Germany’s military force] is one of the most important sources of contracts for the German economy so it stands to reason that it will make the most of the possibilities to keep up this support via the economic stimulus package,” said Franz Josef Jung, defence minister.
Inge Hoeger, parliamentary disarmament expert for the radical, anti-war Left party, accused the government of using “the cloak of combating the economic crisis to accelerate armament of the Bundeswehr”.
“It is bogus to claim the purchase of tanks and combat drones represents an economic stimulus programme,” she added.
The defence ministry insisted that the items were urgently needed “to protect lives”. The German army is involved in several overseas missions, including a deployment of up to 4,500 troops in Afghanistan.
The spending plans have the de facto support of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party and coalition-partner the Social Democratic party, which combined to push the economic stimulus package through parliament.
A Left party spokesman acknowledged that the German public was divided about whether it was an appropriate way to fix the economy.
The list contained long-standing requests from the military that could be quickly implemented as a result of the new funds, a defence ministry spokesman said, adding that some details could change.
America dismantling the military, Germany arming up.
Then they are doing the smart thing!
And Russians, Poles and French getting nervous.
However, in Obamaland:
Military bad, defense contractors bad. Carbon traders and windmill makers, good.
WInners, losers - Obama decides.
> The German government is to spend part of its €50bn economic stimulus package on supplies for its armed forces, possibly including submachine guns, military vehicles and underwater mine detectors.
I don’t think Germany has forgotten how to “Wehrmacht” at all — they’ve just taken a 60-year holiday from it. Germans have always enjoyed war and have always been very good at it. Makes me wonder which way they will go this time.
This is likely a very stupid question, but I’m about to go off the charts so humor me please.
Please don’t tell me that this stimulus money the Germans are talking about spending came from OUR Stimulus package...??
> Please don’t tell me that this stimulus money the Germans are talking about spending came from OUR Stimulus package...??
I don’t think that’s a stupid question at all. To be truthful, I do not know if it is American money they’re spending, or European. I suspect it’s European, but wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t...
Obama’s been spending like a drunken sailor, so what’s a few billion here and there for the Hun and his mates?
1) 500 Million Euro is nothing.
2) My Grandfather spent a few years killing Germans. I don’t see why he should get to have all the fun.
No, it’s Germany’s own “stimulus bill”, called the “Konjunkturpaket II” with 50 Billion Euros. It has some tax cuts, a lot of deficit spending and a whole range of statist big-government “projects”.
yitbos
226-million Euros. That’ll buy ‘em a few cases of 5.56.
Thanks for that
> It is interesting that all that is mentioned are Kleinwaffen und Soldaten Häuser.
hmmmm. All the more interesting when put in context of “machine guns...”
Well the Prez of the UK is wanting to talk to Obama about a Global New Deal, so it wouldn’t surprise me either and that is why I was wondering.
No, its a German stimulus package.
It would have been hilarious if it was the US stimulus package, but thats not happening. Yet.
> Well the Prez of the UK is wanting to talk to Obama about a Global New Deal, so it wouldn’t surprise me either and that is why I was wondering.
Crikey! For the sake of the United States and all her Loyal Citizens I sure hope Obama has none of that. There is no way the US has done anything bad enough to deserve to have to pay for everyone else’s mess.
I have a much better idea: assemble a multi-national raiding party and knock over Switzerland. Capture all of their ill-gotten gains in their secretive Swiss Banks as plunder, and divide it amongst the successful raiding parties pro rata.
Once that has been done, do it again in Luxembourg, and again in Monaco, and again in Liechtenstein. Then offshore to the Grand Cayman. Then Bermuda. Then the Cook Islands...
Do it to all of the Tax Havens. Eventually all their ill-gotten gains will pay for all the money “lost” in the current “crisis” — because guess where all that money went?
Youbetcha. Offshore into tax haven accounts.
> It would have been hilarious if it was the US stimulus package, but thats not happening. Yet.
It’s a scary though to even contemplate that it may yet be on the cards.
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