Posted on 06/01/2024 5:47:05 PM PDT by hardspunned
The chairwoman of the Defence Committee in the German parliament, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has called for the recruitment of 900,000 German reservists in light of Russia's belligerent stance under President Vladimir Putin.
"Putin is training his people for war and positioning them against the West. We must therefore become capable of defence as quickly as possible," Strack-Zimmermann of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), a junior partner in Germany's governing coalition, told the Funke media group in remarks published on Saturday.
Russian industry is focused on manufacturing weapons, the defence expert said. "School books are printed that portray Germany as an aggressor state. Primary-school age children are trained to use weapons. All of this is frightening," she added.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
They’ve been the perfect neighbor. I’m sure the French would agree.
Europe can do whatever, but under no circumstances should people from North America die (yet again) for these morons !
Except the muslims...
Huh???
The entire West is having a Population crisis as every European, American, (South)Korean and Japanese nation generation is not having enough births to even sustain the current numbers.
They should just admit they are now a client state of the US with insufficient courage to admit that the US blew up their pipeline to Russia.
My understanding is that the Frankfurt School was unleashed on Germany after WWII and turned them into guilt-ridden soy boys, so it would not be surprising if they are now unable to field a decent volunteer army.
Unfortunately, it appears the US is also traveling along a similar trajectory and so we might also become a client state of some other nation such as China.
What she is thinking of in the design....is the Finland example where they keep a very small active duty army, and they have a huge reserve force ready to go.
As for the Putin-threat? Other than the nuke-threat (Germans want to rebuild all the bunkers as well), there’s just not going to be much to threaten anyone with the lessening number of tanks, APCs, helicopters, etc.
NATO last week talked up the idea of giving 40-billion dollars of military stuff each year to the Ukraine. If they do that...they will just financially weaken their own military budget.
Is this a possibility?
We both remember back in the day when young German men were required to serve in the German military for several years.
When did that requirement end?
A conscripted force is great if you need raw numbers like Israel or Ukraine today and and fighting on your ground.
However, you’re constantly losing folks you trained up since on average conscription is around 18 months. In some cases (extreme long time) 3 years which is still less than a standard 4 year enlistment.
Militaries usually assign conscripts limited roles to get around this problem, i.e. they are not really well trained and a one trick pony. That way you can get some use out of them.
Moral suffers because a lot of them do not want to be there.
When you have expeditionary campaigns (not fighting on home ground like Israel and Ukraine) you run into problems because these folks are being “forced” to play along. This becomes especially pronounced if the cause of the war is questionable, which describes most of the military campaigns we engage in today.
A lot of militaries create a military inside a military. Very bad thing. You end up with an even smaller force that is over-used and a bigger usually less well trained and equipped territorial defense force.
For nations like the US, UK, France who have a lot of interests they are willing to fight for but are not true self defense, an all volunteer force is recommended.
If you want to win an all out multi-year war between industrial powers, a conscript army is the only way.
By the time you get to year three, everything on the battlefield is new. All the equipment is new, all the vehicles are new, all the soldiers are new.
By year three, that initial “Professional” army is all dead, invalided out, and the survivors are training the people currently being sent to the battlefield.
That’s also a reason why you don’t have a NCO structure that requires years of training, complicated equipment and tactics that takes years of training. You need tactics, equipment, command structures that can be done effectively with draftees, new officers and months, not years of training.
Because those people will be all you have left by year three.
Maybe not the best for some “War game” but that’s what you need for peer war.
Yup. The opponents have raised their game.
But too many on here are still stuck in the thinking of “sand jockeys with roadside bombs”, or even more obsolete, Operation Praying Mantis.
Who’s gonna tell the snowflakes to get out their draft cards 😁
German draft ended in 2011. They re-branded the whole military into a US-like structure...better living conditions, better pay, investment into recruitment. Up until Covid, I would say it was a success (not great, but not bad).
They want to increase billet numbers and the present trouble is that there just isn’t that much interest brewing. Adding to it...mild recession effects going on, so tax revenue isn’t there to offer incentives.
They are convinced in some ways that the Fin-example...large reserve force/small active duty force....probably is the path to the future. But politically...harshly divided at present, with higher priorities.
I would add two observations: (1) If Trump wins, I see a movement of US forces out of Europe (not quitting NATO, just bringing the troops ‘home’). (2) At present, I’d say Russia is dismantling its military and economy at a rapid pace. The oil/natural gas sales? Slumped to some degree without western companies in the maintenance of the delivery system. Even if China would trade for oil/natural gas...distribution is now a open discussion. Rebuilding all the tank losses? You can figure two decades of taxation involved and Russians grumbling over decaying infrastructure.
Not to stir the pot too much, but if you look at German companies looking at production outside of the country (moving jobs and manufacturing where energy is cheaper)...there’s a problem brewing. BASF probably won’t be a pure-German company within 3 years. There’s a job crisis brewing and some kind of economic spiral developing.
It’s incredible watching this stuff happen
Hello,
you see, it is always the same with Mr. Gator from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. On every thread about Germany, he has to insert one of his Nazi images or memes, even when they are totally inappropriate. Like a moronic child.
I think he is either a Germanophobe, or maybe he is just being facetious, or both.
In any case, and in every single thread he contributes to, he comes across as an insufferable and very childish person, with whom no reasonable discussion is possible in any way, shape, or form. Sad.
It could be possible, however, that he is in fact not older than twelve - in this case he should really be forgiven for his immaturity, since he obviously cannot know any better 😀
I really wish he could give it a rest.
Maybe that has been planned for quite a few decades: the ultimate destruction of Germany.
I seem to remember that there has been a discussion here on FR whether the Obama and the Biden administrations had not planned to undermine and eventually destroy America, in a treasonous manner.
Well, in Germany, it is far worse, with Merkel doing the first part and the neocommies under Scholz now (sorry, I just cannot call them „ liberals“) continuing on this destructive course.
God help us all, and our countries.
” The West had made guarantees to Ukraine about their security in return for the Ukies giving up their nukes.”
Here we go again. There was never a treaty ratified by the Senate. That was a Bill Clinton promise, worthless.
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