Important Takeaways:
- If you want peace, prepare for war. Germany appears to be embracing this ancient maxim with the country’s top general warning Monday that Berlin is ready to bring back conscription.
- Carsten Breuer, the German Chief of Defense, told BBC’s Radio 4 an additional 100,000 soldiers would be needed to ensure the country’s ability to defend itself as a belligerent Russia continues to roil the continent.
- Defense chiefs have been looking to increase the size of the armed forces since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but have fallen short of even an initial target of 20,000, as Europe looks ahead to further unrest.
- The Daily Mail reports Breuer warned Russia could attack NATO territory in as little as four years and he is calling for a massive troop buildup – achievable, he says, only through compulsory service through conscription.
- “We are threatened by Russia,” Breuer acknowledged in his comments to Radio 4.
- “We are threatened by Putin, and we have to do whatever is needed to do to deter, and by building up a strong defense line then you deter best.”
- Asked how much time and money was needed to achieve Germany’s defense goals, he said it was “more about how much time Putin gives us to be prepared.”
- “The sooner we are prepared, the better it is.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Germany is considering introducing conscription for all 18-year-olds, as it looks to boost its troop numbers in the face of Russian military aggression.
- Both men and women could be called up to boost numbers in the armed forces
- Military planners in Berlin are in the final stages of discussing three options, two of which involve a form of conscription, according to leaked plans reported in the German media.
- Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is set to go public with the official plans by June.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- German politicians and military chiefs suggest return of conscription
- Political and military figures in Germany have suggested a return of compulsory military service after the new defense minister described the 2011 phase-out of general conscription as a “mistake” that had contributed to alienating the general public from civic institutions.
- “We definitely need more personnel in the Bundeswehr,” Högl told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
- From 1956 until 2011, German men were obliged to perform some form of civic service upon turning 18, with those who did not want to serve in the army having the option to instead carry out Zivildienst in civic institutions such as hospitals or homes for elderly people.
- With the staffing requirements of a downsized army shrinking after the fall of the Berlin Wall, both services were suspended under Angela Merkel’s rule in 2011
- Recently army officials have complained of their struggles to fill the ranks of a Bundeswehr no more than 183,000 strong, while social institutions bemoan the lack of young care workers for whom a Zivildienst spell used to work as a door-opener into the sector.
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