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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   32500 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025

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Germany should become the center of a new rearming European alliance

This is decidedly hard to credit though. Germany is, without hyperbole and measuring it by the standards of the US, France or Ukraine, militarily incompetent. Our military-industrial complex works mostly on the industry side, and that pretty much only because of the export market. The Bundeswehr is barely even a paper tiger and anything touched by the ministry of defence is a bottomless hole of graft.

The current rearmament rhetorics are driven by a political desire to capitalize on anti-Trump and pro-Ukraine sentiments, not by any desire to actually increase the ability of Germany or Europe to wage war. The politicians involved in this latest trend have no interest in, stomach for or indeed resources to spend on rearmament. To be sure they might shake loose a few billion euros in new debt to burn in the name of defence, but that'll be the end of it.

Most Germans still consider anything remotely military distasteful if not utterly immoral, and would rather sabotage rearmament than support it if ignoring the topic is no longer an option.

Germany cannot be relied on to handle defence; neither its own nor anybody elses.

The current rearmament rhetorics are driven by a political desire to capitalize on anti-Trump and pro-Ukraine sentiments, not by any desire to actually increase the ability of Germany or Europe to wage war.

So what if the Americans or the Ukrainians or the Russians call their bluff?

Americans and Ukrainians: We promise to shovel more money at the problem and maybe even do that, but without any determination to make a material difference.

Russians: We shrug and point at Poland. Their problem, if any. Russians are usually bluffing themselves.

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