Due to the Iran war? I didn’t know Germany even had a Middle East presence.
But I guess 30 guys holed up in a camp on the edge of the Erbil airport counts.
German military to leave base in Erbil, northern Iraq by September, Spiegel reports – German troops are set to withdraw from Erbil, Iraq, by the end of September following a broader effort to reduce Germany’s Middle East presence due to the Iran war.
What service?
Young German men refusing military service – Military service remains voluntary in Germany. However, with the Bundeswehr needing more soldiers, conscription could soon return. But an increasing number of young men are choosing to opt out.
Phil Werring is thinking about refusing to serve in the military. He does not want to join the German army, the Bundeswehr.
“They always say it’s about defense,” the student told DW. “But I don’t see the threat situation and therefore I have no interest in completing compulsory service in the army.”
Military service remains voluntary in Germany, but that could soon change. The army needs at least 60,000 additional soldiers in the next few years.
And we danced the Mississippi at an Alpha Kappa dance.
U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers Earn German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge in Poland.
And they will cherish it forever.
Just joking.
German high school students protest against military service – Tens of thousands of high school students took to the streets of cities all over the country to protest against the reintroduction of military service. Many people believe that conscription is inevitable.
Young people gathered in Berlin’s central Potsdamer Square on Thursday and marched through the German capital to protest against the government’s plans to reintroduce military service. While the police counted around 3,000 participants, organizers claimed there were 6,000 demonstrators in Berlin and 50,000 in more than 130 towns and cities across Germany.
“I don’t think I’ll be dying for my friends, relatives or acquaintances, in the worst-case scenario,” 17-year-old Shmuel Schatz, spokesperson for the School Strike Committee, told DW’s Gasia Ohanes. “Rather, in the end, only for those who are put into the trenches for the interests of large corporations like Rheinmetall, ThyssenKrupp, and others, so they can line their pockets at the expense of war.”
Two-thirds of them don’t welcome killer robots.
They’re stuck in the past, man.
One in three Germans welcome killer robots, new poll says – AI-enabled technologies like drones are transforming warfare but face criticism from rights groups.
Call it “bots on the ground.”
One in three Germans think their country should allow artificial intelligence to make life-or-death decisions on the battle field, according to The POLITICO Poll.
A third of respondents in Germany said they favor AI systems to be used in weapons in place of human decision makers, even if these systems are less transparent, the poll showed.
All 15 of them.
It’s getting too hot there.
And it’s way too cold there too.
Greenland row: German military ends short deployment – German soldiers departed Greenland as scheduled. It comes amid President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and his claim that Greenland should belong to the US.
That means trenches.
Coincidentally, that also means graves (das Grab).
German troops to dig trenches on Poland’s borders – Anti-tank barriers to be built on frontiers with Belarus and Russia as Moscow ramps up pressure on Nato airspace.
Too few volunteers for the German military?
“I know, we’ll reintroduce the draft for everyone.” “No, we’ll introduce a lottery instead.”
They will do neither, of course. In a country where the majority of the citizenry openly admits that it would not defend it, the “debate” is meaningless.
Germany news: Coalition frictions open on military service – A canceled presentation on a military service breakthrough showed further signs of tension between the CDU and SPD.
That means surge.
German armed forces see 28% surge in recruits in NATO defence boost – Germany’s armed forces reported a 28% surge in soldier recruits from January to late July, compared with the same period last year, bolstering plans to boost NATO defences in response to what it sees as an increased threat from Russia.
The Defence Ministry said on Thursday more than 13,700 people had joined the Bundeswehr – the army, air force, navy and other forces – in that period, in what it said was the steepest rise for years.
Ah, because younger Germans aren’t?
Prepared to defend: Why older Germans are opting for military service – Thomas Hüser did not serve his country in uniform and with a weapon in the early 1990s, but instead opted to work for a year as a care assistant for the elderly – as was his right under Germany’s laws on alternative military service.
However, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the 54-year-old had a major rethink on his earlier moral stance on taking up arms.
“In the face of global threats, serving in the armed forces is a question of solidarity. Only a strong military can protect us,” said Hüser, a communications expert and manager who runs a zinc smelter in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.
Observing Hermann 