Lithuania

February 22, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Aggression, Arms exports, Defense, Exports, Germany, Lithuania, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, Weapons Leave a comment

Beautiful German weapon sale of the week (not).

Because somebody has to admire them if they would only be there to admire but not in this case because countries like Lithuania that actually need weapons from countries like Germany can’t have them because that might hurt countries like Russia’s feelings and we wouldn’t want that.

Maybe the Lithuanians would be interested in some German broomsticks instead?

Die baltischen Staaten fürchten russische Aggressionen nach dem Vorbild der Krim-Invasion und des Kriegs in der Ostukraine. Litauen will seine Armee deshalb modernisieren. Hilfe aus Deutschland gibt es dabei nicht.

Smart Guns Too Smart?

December 29, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Helplessness, Hi-tech, Higher Education Tags: Exports, German, Germans, Germany, Gun control, Guns, Heckler & Koch, Smart Guns, Technology, Weapons Leave a comment

Mr. Mauch and his team developed a weapon that works using radio-frequency identification – the same technology employed in anti-theft tags on clothes in department stores. To fire its gun, you use an accompanying watch. When that watch is activated with a code and sitting on your wrist – or anywhere less than 25 centimetres away from the gun – the gun will fire. Otherwise, it’s a “just a piece of composite,” says Mr. Mauch, and useless as a weapon…

A former long-time colleague of Mr. Mauch’s in the United States, who asked not to be named, called him a “first-rate” weapons designer but said he didn’t appreciate the American context. “The thing that worries me and millions like me is that the anti-gunners in our [government] … ONLY want this technology so they can restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” the colleague wrote in an e-mail. “Would you want to bet your life on your smart phone or laptop? Me neither.”

Mexico

December 28, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Arms exports, Exports, Pacifism, Profit, Weapons 1 Comment

Beautiful German weapon sale of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

Coming soon: South Africa.

Israel

December 26, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Heconomy, Hypocrisy Tags: Exports, Germany, Israel, Pacifism, Profit, Weapons Leave a comment

Beautiful German weapon sale of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

German Police Academy II?

October 23, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Afghanistan, Arms exports, Germans, Germany, Iraq, ISIS, Kurds, Military, Police, Terror, Weapons Leave a comment

Word is out that Germans will “most likely” provide military training to Kurdish groups in northern Iraq.

That’s cool, I guess. But we can only hope that these trainers won’t be as ineffective as those who just spent ten years training Afghan police forces and failed miserably at it.

German officials have been training police in Afghanistan for a decade, but a visit to their training center in Mazar-e-Sharif creates major doubts about the effectiveness of the mission. Afghan police remain poorly prepared to tackle the mighty challenges they will face as Western forces withdraw.

Ineffective and Unsustainable: Failure Threatens Afghan Police Training Mission

Drittländer

October 15, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Arms Deals, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, Pacifism, Pacifists, SPD, Weapons, Weapons Exports 1 Comment

Or “third countries.” Beautiful German weapon sale of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

The German government has approved over 1.4 billion euros worth of weapons sales to third countries during the first six months of this year.

Deutsche Firmen dürfen unter Wirtschaftsminister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) beinahe ebenso gute Rüstungsgeschäfte mit sogenannten Drittländern machen wie unter der schwarz-gelben Vorgängerregierung.

German Of The Day: Frieden Schaffen Ohne Arbeitsplätze

September 21, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Employment, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, Pacifism, Profit, Weapons Leave a comment

Ohne Waffen natürlich. That means “make peace without weapons.” Or in this case without jobs?

After Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) recently announced that he will tighten rules on arms exports from Germany (the world’s third largest arms exporter) in the coming months, Germany’s defense industry lobby has fired back with the warning that “these companies are looking into shifting production abroad.”

The defense industry employs about 80,000 people in Germany.

It is unclear at the moment which weapon the Economy Minister will pull out now to make peace with next.

“Wenn mein Land bei mir nicht kauft und mir gleichzeitig sagt, du darfst nicht exportieren, dann halte ich das nicht lange durch.”

German Army Wants Armed Drones Just In Case

June 30, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Arms, Drones, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Military, Pacifism, Satire, Weapons Leave a comment

So it can have the military ability to answer with a resounding no if anybody ever asks them to use them, I mean.

What on earth are they smoking over there with Colonel Klink these days, anyway?

Drone-opponents worry that having armed drones at the Bundeswehr’s disposal will lower inhibitions to use them, too. There is also the fear that fully automatic drones will at some point be able to make decisions regarding life or death. UAVs can already take off and land by themselves and – once programmed – fly routes without human involvement.