Germany to its credit wants to add troops to its painfully inadequate military (but spending better increase unless they want even more of their military to be useless during war). But recruiting foreigners whose countries are also fielding tiny militaries just robs Peter to pay Paul doesn't it?
The German military, the Bundeswehr, had 21,000 unfilled positions in 2017, and the service is now looking beyond its borders to fill its ranks.
A Defense Ministry report in late 2016 proposed recruiting from other EU countries, and the ministry confirmed in late July that it was seriously considering doing so.
Remember, the already small German army has already incorporated 4 brigades of NATO allies into their poorly manned and sustained army, which seems to me just reduces the effectiveness of the 4 foreign brigades that have been integrated into the German army.
So now Germany wants to poach recruits from other European states that probably spend more than Germany's low percent of GDP on their military?
In 2019 the Germans say they will be ready to command the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (the name cracks me up for the term inflation, although I fear NATO adds adjectives as a substitute for actual readiness. What's next, the "Absolutely Very High Readiness Joint Task Force"?). Well, as long as no German units are part of it, maybe VHRJTF will be very highly ready.
Oh, and from that first article linked there is this evergreen excuse for a poor military:
The Bundeswehr still struggles with its Nazi history.
First of all, as always, I'm ready with the clue bat:
I keep reading that the Germans hate their militaristic past so much that they don't want to fight.
Let's try applying the clue bat to Germany's collective skull on this issue.
Conquering and setting up death camps under the shield of a powerful military? That's bad. By all means, don't do that.
Having a military capable of fighting death cult enemies or stopping the Russians from moving west? Well, that's a good thing. Try doing that.
Second, do the Germans realize that their Nazi history included enlisting a lot of Europeans into SS formations to fight for Germany?
During World War II, the Waffen-SS recruited significant numbers of non-Germans, both as volunteers and conscripts. In total some 500,000 non-Germans and ethnic Germans from outside Germany, mostly from German-occupied Europe, were recruited between 1940 and 1945.
Why isn't getting foreign units and individual volunteers a sensitive issue for Germans to "struggle" with?
Did two world wars and a Cold War have no effect? Is Germany on our side?
Germany was never a high spender, but they fielded the best mechanized force in NATO in the Cold War (very late, America may have passed them by). What the Hell happened to them?
