{"id":47018,"date":"2019-02-22T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=47018"},"modified":"2019-02-21T18:00:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T23:00:30","slug":"germanys-armed-forces-from-world-class-to-laughing-stock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2019\/02\/22\/germanys-armed-forces-from-world-class-to-laughing-stock\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany’s armed forces – from world class to laughing stock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany’s military has fallen on very hard times<\/a>, and there’s so much wrong that it will be very difficult to fix even with all the goodwill in the world:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The German Navy training ship Gorch Fock<\/em> (launched in 1958) under full sail (less the spanker topsail) in Kiel Fjord near the Laboe Naval Memorial in July 2006.
Photo by Felix Koenig via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

Most Germans\u2019 eyes glaze over at the mention of the Bundeswehr<\/em>\u2019s perpetual troubles, but an affair surrounding the Gorch Fock<\/em>, the navy\u2019s three-masted naval training ship, has caught their attention.<\/p>\n

Launched in 1958 to school a new generation of West German naval recruits, the imposing 81-meter ship, which takes its name from a popular seafaring German author\u2019s pseudonym, is more than just a training vessel; to many, the Gorch Fock<\/em> \u2014 whose likeness was etched onto some Deutsche Mark bills \u2014 is a symbol of Germany\u2019s postwar revival.<\/p>\n

The ship\u2019s iconic status is one reason why few objected when the Bundeswehr<\/em> announced in 2015 that it needed a major overhaul. Until, that is, the price tag exploded from an initial projection of \u20ac10 million to \u20ac135 million, according to the latest estimate.<\/p>\n

Bundeswehr<\/em> officials claimed the depth of the ship\u2019s troubles only became clear when it was in dry dock, but few are buying such explanations. \u201cWhen the repairs cost more than a new ship, something is obviously amiss,\u201d Bartels, the Bundeswehr<\/em>\u2019s parliamentary overseer, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The Gorch Fock<\/em> \u201cis a symptom of the Bundeswehr<\/em>\u2019s broader problems,\u201d Bartels said. \u201cEverything takes too long and costs too much money. It\u2019s as if time and money were endless resources, and in the end no one takes responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost overnight, the ship has gone from pride and joy to running gag. Last week, German weekly Der Spiegel<\/em> pictured the Gorch Fock<\/em> on its cover under the headline, \u201cShip of Fools.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an apt metaphor for Germany\u2019s body politic as well. Given Germany\u2019s size and economic might, Berlin\u2019s attention to security is surprisingly shallow; citizens and politicians alike often seem oblivious to the challenges the country faces. Though Germany faces growing security threats from both Russia and China, one wouldn\u2019t know it hanging around the German capital.<\/p>\n

Much of the media now portrays the U.S. as a security threat on par with Russia. Public attitudes have moved in a similar direction. Security discussions are driven by a handful of like-minded think tank analysts who seem to spend most their time on Twitter, fretting about whether Trump will pull the plug on NATO.<\/p>\n

More Germans believe China is a better partner for their country than the U.S., according to a survey published last week by Atlantik Br\u00fccke, a Berlin-based transatlantic lobbying group. About 80 percent of those surveyed consider U.S.-German relations to be \u201cnegative\u201d or \u201cvery negative.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

H\/T to Instapundit<\/a> for the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germany’s military has fallen on very hard times, and there’s so much wrong that it will be very difficult to fix even with all the goodwill in the world: Most Germans\u2019 eyes glaze over at the mention of the Bundeswehr\u2019s perpetual troubles, but an affair surrounding the Gorch Fock, the navy\u2019s three-masted naval training ship, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1118,84,5],"tags":[145,31,697,220,30,851],"class_list":["post-47018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-germany","category-government","category-military","tag-airforce","tag-army","tag-budget","tag-nato","tag-navy","tag-tallships"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-cem","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47022,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47018\/revisions\/47022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}