Bad Memories: Berlin is flexing its military muscles, and a shiver runs through Europe’s spine. Badly trailing the conservative opposition...
Bad Memories: Berlin is flexing its military muscles, and a shiver runs through Europe’s spine.
Badly trailing the conservative opposition in the polls, Olaf Scholz and his merry band of Liberal Globalists have come with a great new plan to turn things around: WAR.
So now it arises that Germany will make its military ‘the backbone of European deterrence’ with sweeping changes and modernization.
And that’s not all: to try and make up for the expected loss in foreign military aid for Ukraine, Scholz will double the amount of resources previously allocated.
Reuters reported:
“German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition has agreed in principle to double the country’s military aid for Ukraine next year to 8 billion euros ($8.5 billion), a political source in Berlin said on Sunday.”
Scholz’s coalition holds a majority in Parliament, so the boost is expected to be approved, lifting Germany’s defense spending to 2.1% of its GDP.
That is beyond the 2% pledged by all North Atlantic Treaty Organization members – but never fully invested until now.
“Lawmakers from Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Green party agreed on the increase in negotiations over the proposed 2024 federal budget ahead of a formal meeting of the budget committee of the Bundestag – or lower house of parliament – on Thursday, Nov. 16, the source said.”
Defense sources declined to comment since the Bundestag committee has not finished negotiations.
“Defence minister Boris Pistorius, interviewed by broadcaster ARD, referred to the planned doubling of military aid to Ukraine.
‘It is a strong signal to Ukraine that we will not leave them in the lurch’, he said, adding the move, if agreed, would mean the annual budget allocation would be enough to last the whole year.”
This comes at a delicate time when the EU plan to spend up to 20 billion euros ($21 billion) on military aid for Ukraine hasn’t found the needed unanimity.
This spending move comes in the context of Germany’s accelerating reforms of its military bureaucracy.
The ongoing overhaul of the country’s military was announced by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
The revamp of the military seeks to ‘make the force more capable of defending Germany and its allies’.
Deutsche Welle reported:
“‘We must be the backbone of deterrence and collective defense in Europe. Our own population, as well as our partners in Europe, North America and the world, expect us to face up to this responsibility’, the new defense guidelines said.
The Bundeswehr, as Germany’s army is known, ‘must be ready for war in all areas. This means that its personnel and equipment must be geared towards fulfilling its demanding missions’, the document added.”
A well-equipped military capable of high-intensity combat at any time “is the only way to ensure credible deterrence and peace’.
The new major defense policy shift, known as “Zeitenwende,” was announced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz following Russia’s war in Ukraine in February 2022.
“‘With the Zeitenwende, Germany becomes a grown up country in terms of security policy’, Pistorius said.”
Reforming the Bundeswehr will take time, the organization now having to overcome ‘decades of neglect’.
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