Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr, recently got the all-clear for a massive increase in investment after parliament voted to exempt defence spending from strict rules on debt.
The country’s top general has told the BBC the cash boost is urgently needed because he believes Russian aggression won’t stop at Ukraine.
“We are threatened by Russia. We are threatened by Putin. We have to do whatever is needed to deter that,” Gen Carsten Breuer says. He warns that Nato should be braced for a possible attack in as little as four years.
“It’s not about how much time I need, it’s much more about how much time Putin gives us to be prepared,” the defence chief says bluntly. “And the sooner we are prepared the better.”
I don’t see this as Germany leaving history in the past, but being smart to protect their future so the that the lessons of the past mean something.
Germans are on track to elect the AfD. Do you think them having a 500 Billion dollar army is a good plan?
What choice do we have? I would focus on improving everything for the regulars and copy the Finnish reserve system.
Germany, Italy, and Japan go to war against Russia and the US. Only this time the former group is the Good Guys.
Go back to WW1 and you’ll have a hard time pointing to good guys. Even WW2 was heavily sketch. The US was halfway in bed with the Nazis under Hoover and only at odds with Japan because it was encroaching on the British opium trade through Hong Kong and Shanghai.
These wars were, at their hearts, the end consequences of a century of industrial imperialism. The good guys were in Latin America and North Africa and the South Pacific, fighting for their independence and sovereignty.
Lieutenant George: The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire-building.
Captain Blackadder: George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganiki. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front.
You’re taking my shitpost comment way too seriously.
Pearl Harbour 2 is gonna be sick
Italy has a grotesque far right wave RN, they are not the good guys still. Japan is not progressive enough compared to Germany, but I can believe Germany is far removed from being as much as a bad guy compared to the USA & Russia today.
Japan has never really reckoned with its past. They were just pacified.
I judge the country as a whole for this, since they keep electing politicians who continue to do very little to reckon with their past.
I feel a lot could be gained by apologising to the people and nations for the past, and nothing lost, other than nationalistic pride, bring forced into self reflection, and being genuinely sorry on behalf of the country.
People who think they shouldn’t apologise because it wasn’t them personally are stupid, frankly, and standing in the way of reducing tensions.
Will it fix everything in the region? No. Will it take some of the steam out of the war machine? Probably.
Is that why Japan is the only WW II participant who has not fired a shot in anger since August 1945? Japan learned, the rest of you fucks failed miserably and continue to do so.
Oh don’t get me wrong. The strong adherence to pacifism is laudable. But they have not reckoned with their atrocities committed during and prior world war II. They practically deny them ever happening.
Your whataboutism is not appreciated.
They are not Registered Nurses.
Only this time they don’t have enough population to left to fight.
There are no good guys in war
Only this time the former group is the Good Guys.
Propaganda is crazy
for the first time, Germany possibly gets to be the “good guys” in a world war! Quite a turnaround.
With the Putin-loving, fascist AfD as the second strongest party in the country? We will see, but I do not have high hopes.
I’d like to believe they’ll kick the Nazis out of the bar before they reach the levers of true power, but I’m American and you see how well having that naive hope went for us.
Having said that, I imagine the Germans are at least slightly more cognizant of the risks involved than we are. Difference between “It can’t happen here!” and “It has already happened here and it was bad.”
Having said that, I imagine the Germans are at least slightly more cognizant of the risks involved than we are.
Yeah one would think so, huh? But nope, right now nothing points to that. The last government declined to start the banning process against the AfD even tho the chances of success would have been really high. And that was a coalition of basically the labor party (as far as they think of themselves at least), the greens and some neo-lib shitheads. With the conservative government of right now? Lmao fat chance.
So my understanding is that they are the second strongest, but still at around 20% the other German parties formed a coalition that froze Afd out of power. So they are still a threat in future elections, but they have limited impact on policy for now.
Is that correct or have I got the wrong idea?
Mostly correct yes. The main danger lies in future elections.
I mean, were they really The Bad Guys™ in WW1?
From what I understand about WW1, it was just a huge clusterfuck
If they won they wouldn’t be.
From my point of view, everyone was the Bad Guys in ww1.
No we weren’t! - Belgium.
“good guys” vs “bad guys” logic isn’t much wise. In the cold war USA and germany recycled nazi and ss members to war with russia. World governments are all corrupted and have blood on their hands, none of them is really the good guys.
Misleading title ass click bait type shit.
It feels a bit weird being on the German side for once, also their track record of succeeding isn’t that great, but I love our neighbors and I fully support them.
I’m just, sad the world is falling into another world war while we also just could be more kind and forgiving towards each other. It would save a lot of lives and leads of pain and agony.
We are not the same Germany, with exception to the Prussian military discipline that is buried deep within us. Thanks to morons in DC and Moscow, they are forcing to break the pacifistic dam that we were force to build post WW II.
None of this would have been necessary if it wasn’t for republicans.
Not just republicans. Democrats in the US are right wing too. The entire country is fucked up, the reps just speed up the process exponentially. But don’t forget the most immigrants who have been thrown out was during Obama and Biden. Biden supported Israel too, with loads of weapons.
It feels a bit weird being on the German side for once
It should feel “weird” to support genocide.
So yes forgiving and all that. Here are the steps: 1 Putin removes his troops from the occupied territories 2 he apologizes 3 maybe someone forgives him.
Well yeah, but what I wished was that he wouldn’t have invaded in the first place, no totalitarian rulers, no people declaring wars as a dick measuring contest. No Putin in the first place. Putin will never give up and apologize, but hopefully he dies and his replacement would retreat, apologize and help Ukraine fix their country. But the chance of that happening is little to none, the next in line is probably just as bad as Putler.
Good article.
I appreciate that this was the photo the bbc chose to express German concern over US Russian relations;
I also see Putin as quite very
Very, quite
Liberal qanon loves the homophobic conspiracies.
qanon is wildly conservative.
and what’s homophobic to you about two guys kissing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_God%2C_Help_Me_to_Survive_This_Deadly_Love?wprov=sfla1
I wonder, is it meant to look like the famous graffiti?
very well could be.
I did not realize that graffiti was based on an actual photograph.
Germant repeats history. More news at 11.
A bit concerning if an AfD take-over can’t be completely ruled out.
Yeah I’m a bit tired of bought out politicians dismantling a country from the inside.
Probably the biggest loophole that HAS to be fixed!
I foresee a non-zero chance that this could backfire and their new ever-expanding military budget gets used on smaller weaker nations and then as an excuse to divert funding away from services that people actually rely on.
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Removed by mod
Great powers rearming will not be good for anyone no matter what the context is around it. After Napoleon, European leaders were so afraid of war between great powers that they avoided it for 100 years. The moment they let their guard up we got WW1. The weapons do not make us safer. Don’t think for a moment it can’t happen again.
After Napoleon, European leaders were so afraid of war between great powers that they avoided it for 100 years.
What kind of bullshit is this? The napoleonic wars were over in 1815. In 1866 there war the austro-prussian war, in 1870 the franco-german war. That’s barely 50 years, and those wars are just those I remember from history class. I’m sure there were more in between. Or are we talking Napoleon III who was deposed in the franco-german war in 1870? Well I’m pretty sure in the 100 years since then Napoleon there were some even bigger wars.
Sad to read that people are ok with this.
Stop contributing to rich people bullshit and step out of the system. Every other move will get us all killed.
Dear imperial media… You talking about this Germany?
They didn’t leave history in the past. They’ve been supporting genocide ever since.
It didn’t take much for people to get brainwashed into war all over again
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-preparedness-the-road-to-universal-slaughter
I’m not sure what else those under threat of attack should do than to try and best prepare for it. Germany isn’t the first target that comes to mind but still.
Europe spend billions on war already, they are already prepared for it and practice a war every year
And Germany needs to spend more to get their shit in order. Right now their military is in a very poor shape.
You don’t defend your country or help your allies by just pointing at a balance sheet.
They spend billions each year their shit is already in order
They’re spending billions on military pensions alone. Doesn’t do anything for their military capability. They’ve been chronically underspending for decades and it has deteriorated their capabilities. And it’s understandble, times have been good and USA was a good strong partner. Things have unfortunately changed. What they need money now is modernization, new purchases, development, all sorts of things to actually make the military a respectable defence force.
You don’t fight a war with receipts.
Who are you supposed to fight a war to begin with?
Germany is not the only country in the world spending money on military pensions.
Gee I wonder who might be the threat here.
Germany is not the only country in the world spending money on military pensions.
No but if they are spending a lot of money on it, by your logic they must have a a very capable military.
