You didn’t really believe that Germany was going to spend that 100 billion euro special fund for the military for the military, did you?
German military in worse shape than before Russia’s invasion – The German military is suffering from a greater shortage of weapons and equipment than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces said in her annual report on Tuesday.
“The Bundeswehr has too little of everything, and it has even less since (Russia’s invasion on) Feb. 24, 2022,” Eva Hoegl, who acts as an advocate defending the rights of the troops, told reporters in Berlin.
Germans love announcing turning points. It makes things sound so, I dunno, official or something. And it’s official here too: Their latest military turning point is working almost as well as their energy turning point (Energiewende) did. Namely, not at all.
Germany’s military ‘Zeitenwende’ is off to a slow start.
Three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a rousing speech to the Bundestag. He had a clear message: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression has ushered in a new era of war in Europe, and wealthy countries like Germany, having pared down their defense spending for decades, needed to rearm. A year after German lawmakers applauded Scholz’s call to action, and as Scholz visits the White House on March 3, 2023, one must ask what has become of Germany’s much-heralded Zeitenwende, or “turning point.”
Olaf Scholz has not delivered on his sweeping vision for a more modern, more active German military.
And anybody who thinks will ever live up to their promises about defense spending is a fool.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz summarized his country’s approach to the war in Ukraine. “Despite all the pressure to take action,” he said, “caution must take priority over hasty decisions, unity over solo actions.” The line provided Scholz’s most explicit defense to date of Germany’s cycle of denial and delay.
A year ago, Scholz announced a special investment fund of more than 100 billion euros to strengthen the German military, but less than a third of those euros have been assigned to contracts. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently aired concerns that Germany’s stockpiles have been depleted by its generous transfers to Ukraine. These comments strain common sense when most of the “special funds” remained unspent until December, when lawmakers finally approved the first procurements. This month, Scholz also abandoned plans to establish a National Security Council, a body that would have been well suited to manage an expanded role in the defense of Europe.
German of the day: Ein Esel schimpft den anderen Langohr. That means “a donkey scolds the other long-eared.”
In other words, the pot is calling the kettle black.
Germany chides allies for delays in delivering tanks to Ukraine – Defence minister expresses disbelief at slow progress by countries that pressed Berlin for Leopard decision.
Germany’s defence minister has voiced his frustration with European partners who spent months pressuring Berlin to supply tanks to Ukraine but have so far failed to deliver any of the heavy armour themselves.
So if US-Amerika sends tanks, Mom, I don’t see why I can’t…
Berlin Won’t Allow Exports of German Tanks to Ukraine Unless U.S. Sends Its Own – North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have over 2,000 German-made Leopard tanks.
Several European governments have said they are ready to send German-made tanks to Ukraine, including Poland, Finland and Denmark, if they get approval from Berlin, though none has made a formal request. Britain has said it would send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks, an older equivalent to the Leopard.
“One can’t differentiate between direct exports (of German-made tanks) and exports by third countries,” a senior German official said Wednesday.
Was she lame? Of course she was. But that’s the German Defense Minister’s job, to be lame. Look at the woman currently running the EU who was infinitely worse and fired “upstairs” (not elected, by the way). German defense ministers are, after all, pretend defense ministers. They are pretend defense ministers for an alibi army. No one in Germany expects the Bundeswehr to ever be anything other than that. They wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s all just a big show to justify having such a profitable weapons industry. Nobody living outside of Germany seems to get this.
Christine Lambrecht: German defence minister resigns after blunders – Germany’s Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht has resigned following a series of blunders and PR disasters.
It comes as Berlin comes under rising pressure to allow the delivery of German-built battle tanks to Ukraine.
German defense minister lambasted over NYE Ukraine message – German media has mocked a “tone-deaf” video put out by Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht. She was slammed for discussing the war in Ukraine as people set off fireworks.
“The speech about the war with New Year’s Eve firecrackers in the background only crowns her series of embarrassments.”
And defense for free (from Dire Straits, sort of).
Our German Ally: Tanking.
Putin has given any number of reasons (all of them nonsense) to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One of them was that Russia was “threatened” by NATO’s expansion. That is, to put it mildly, unconvincing. Russia’s grumbling about Ukrainian independence dates back to the Yeltsin era, long before (the special case of the vanished East Germany aside) NATO had expanded to include any countries in the former Soviet bloc.
A more convincing explanation (so far as the Kremlin’s attitude to NATO was concerned) was that Putin had seen the alliance’s weakness and concluded that it would present Moscow with no problems in the event that Russia took back control over its neighbor. An important reason why the Kremlin might have seen things that way was the position of Germany, a supposedly key member of NATO, but one that had a distinctly, uh, nuanced view of what membership of the alliance meant.
One obvious sign of that was the country’s neglect of its armed forces throughout Angela Merkel’s dismal chancellorship.
Germany to Miss Military Spending Target Next Year, Study Says – Germany will fail to meet a NATO guideline of spending 2% of gross domestic product on its military next year and again from 2026 onwards, according to an analysis quoted in local media on Monday.
“The 2% target is receding into the distant future despite €100 billion in special funds, and even necessary procurements in the short term are not progressing.”
Observing Hermann 