12:09AM
Germany retools its military
Friday, September 3, 2010 at 12:09AM 
I'm training here! I'm TRAINING!
NYT story on new plan by German defense minister to end draft and cut end strength (number of troops) by 90k (from 250k to 163,000) Currently, the Bundeswehr can project only about 7k troops abroad at any one time. The goal, long expressed, is to double that to 14,000, but that couldn't be achieved absent this restructuring, says the defense minister.
Driving dynamic is to cut 8B euro from the budget over 2011-2014 timeframe.
If we're realistic, we admit Europe is a minor military partner in the decades ahead, leaving us to court million-man armies in Asia (India, China--a goal that's worthy simply for making sure the two don't mix it up for real).
Everything else is peanuts.
Reader Comments (2)
The problem with your suggestion is that the European forces have spent the past two decades learning hard the skills you need for the kind of missions the US has been pursuing (though not always openly admitting): peacekeeping, postconflict reconstruction, nation-building, eventually even counterinsurgency. I don't think the numbers are crucial here - though I readily admit that the proportion of deployable forces to the overall numbers is in many cases (Germany included, but not the only one) laughable. Not to speak about the fact that many of the aforementioned types of 'human-centric' operations are especially politically sensitive and a firm background of shared beliefs, institutionalized cooperation and mutual trust is essential,
No wonder the Russians are acting like they "run" things. No one left to fight in Europe.