If Germany has a lot of weapons some people are unhappy. If Germany has not enough weapons some people are unhappy. "Arschkarte gezogen" (we got the **** end of the stick) we call it in German. In this thread about the 100 billion program the people talk about the rising of the 4th Reich and suggest Jews to flee from Germany. http://politicalforum.com/index.php...y-force-in-europe-says-scholz-dw-news.603871/ As a German taxpayer I expect a capable Bundeswehr for my money.
Annalena Baerbock - Foreign Minister Christine Lambrecht - Defence Minister Baerbock is doing a good job Lambrecht isn't.
Germany spends more than France yet France certainly gets more capabilities and vastly more bang for the buck for its defense spending. Germany badly needs to reform its military procurement system so that purchases take less time (20 year time over runs are normal in Germany with associated cost over runs and endless lawsuits), are more predictable without the yearly major programmatic changes as happens now, and overhead eats an extreme amount of defense spending. Overhead needs savage cuts for greater efficiency so funds can be freed up for improved new equipment purchases as well as things like ammo stores, spare parts stockpiles, and stocking up on basic equipment incase of war so troops scan actually have basic equipment. France spends less yet manages to have more tanks, trucks, IFV, better kit for soldiers, not to mention more planes, a vastly larger Navy (including an aircraft carrier), and even a nuclear force. Germany lacks all of those despite spending more. That needs to end.
Palin came off as an airhead. It's kind of funny that she has failed to make a comeback even in the Trump era.
I was amazed that she even tried. Baerbock is not an empty shell, like Palin. She has no experience for the job, she got it like Lambrecht because of Gender Balance and she was the Co boss of the Gruene, with Habeck. Experience, knowledge and so on were no points for her to get the job. She got it because of her sex and position in the party and because she wanted it and had the power to get it.
I wonder if that is true. I mean, if an incompetent guy gets a job, people don't say it's just because he's a guy. There is a certain double standard when it comes to women. They are judged more harshly.
We like to pretend otherwise, but there is no peace without weapons. Even the most international of laws is enforced at the end of a gun, howitzer or missile. You have some well-meaning principles and laws? Great, now enforce them. Germany is finally starting to wake up to this after decades of guilt for something practically no Germans today had a hand in, and which they all vigorously oppose with all their might. As a result, even the Ukraine now has a much stronger military than Germany (a hundred billion in US arms transfers doesn't hurt). The old days of bitching at the US about their military while relying pretty exclusively on that military for their defense are coming to an end. Adapt or die. They don't even need to go on military adventures. Take a page out of the Swiss book - talk softly and carry a big stick. The Swiss homeland would very quickly resemble Afghanistan for any invader. And they have their freedoms intact to boot.
Ukraine does not have the modern Air Force that Germany has. Ukraine’s armor is a few generations older than Germany’s. The key point is that if Germany was attacked by Russia ( a similar country) Germany unlike Ukraine will have all of NATO fighting Russia. Yes I am taking into consideration that Ukraine has been given a very fair amount of weapons but they are fighting a country with a military that is. 10 times the size of Ukraine’s.
Of course, German soft power is many orders of magnitude stronger than Ukraine's - owing to their membership in NATO and extensive control of the European Union. The massive investment of the US in the Marshall Plan alone would be enough, even if they weren't in those organisations. But the army itself, absent all of those alliances, is weaker than Ukraine's. I don't claim to be an expert on this, so I will defer to them: https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.php I don't doubt that if Germany went all out in 1930s style building up their military it wouldn't take them very long to be a major player. The Ruhr Valley is a heck of a thing. As a result their ranking is a bit deceiving. And yet the point remains!
I heard awhile back---maybe sometime in December--that the US is the only country that is even remotely timely in getting weapons, supplies, etc to Ukraine. Despite big pledges, the EU nations have not really delivered much of what has been promised. I have always suspected that it was because they didn't really have it to spare. For better or worse, one of the reasons our Defense Department is so "wasteful" as some one describe it in times of peace, is that they keep their suppliers in business whether they need what they are buying or not as part of the Always Be prepared strategy.
Not in Germany, Gender Balance is demanded by law. Its nuts. This government in Germany was not put together by quality, knowledge and experience, but by having equal sex in the top positions, which is rather insane, besides having to satisfy political power. Baerboch got her josb, because her party had to have a female and a male party boss. So, she had to get a top job. If there would have been just one party boss like Harbeck, no job. She got her job because she is a woman. Lambrecht the same, she got her job because a female was needed to keep the balance in the cabinet
What makes you say that they are not qualified for their jobs, exactly? And why assume that just because you feel they're not qualified, they were chosen simply because they are women? I mean, other women might have been chosen to fill those roles if some gender quota was an issue. Are they responsible for Kanzler Scholz failing to authorize certain weapon systems for Ukraine? Are they responsible for years and decades of German military inefficiency in procurement?
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht resigns https://www.dw.com/en/german-defense-minister-christine-lambrecht-resigns/a-64401401
Christine Lambrecht really was not qualified for her job. And yes, she was only made a minister because she is a woman - to fill a quota. That is a sad fact. She really was good for nothing, believe you me.
So it is. And Chancellor Scholz wanted to do even more as was demanded by law. He wanted to have a cabinet that is exactly 50 % female and 50% male. Soon German law may demand a certain percentage of trans people and a certain percentage of migrant people etc etc etc ...
And all you're doing is repeating the same claims and offering no explanation. So far, it all sounds entirely tautological, as in Lambrecht is not qualified because she's not qualified (and also because she's a woman). You guys insist that she and Baerbock were appointed to fill a gender quota, but what evidence is there to support that? I can only reiterate my point that there is a mighty sad double standard where men and women are concerned. Women are judged more harshly and accused of gaining their positions without merit. Plenty of unqualified guys get appointed to positions and they aren't subject to these accusations, unless maybe they belong to some minority group. Then the same assumptions about filling quotas will be trotted out.
Germany will have a new Minister of Defence now: https://www.dw.com/en/just-in-pistorius-to-become-germanys-new-defense-minister-reports/a-64418604
Lambtecht didn‘t want the job, she had to because she matched three quotas. Female, her federal state and her position in the party (quota for left and right wing social democrats).