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Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

(www.bbc.com)
126 points petermcneeley | 1 comments | 06 Dec 25 19:19 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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nicbou ◴[07 Dec 25 00:00 UTC] No.46177825[source]▶
To offer a bit of context, the same government just voted to raise current pensions at the expense of steep taxation hikes for current workers, made massive cuts to social services, and is now discussing military service.

This generation is rightfully feeling like they're getting a sore deal.

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sunshine-o ◴[07 Dec 25 09:25 UTC] No.46180364[source]▶
Yes and the question is who does the German state really target to enroll in their "new" army. Because "This generation" has a lot of clearly distinct groups.

So it could be:

- the native young population who are now flocking in the AfD

- the people fighting the AfD in the street

- the second generation immigrants born there

- the very recent immigrants

- a mix of all

Because the alchemy of creating a working army and "esprit de corps" is much harder than in a corporation. You cannot just take a modern managerial approach to creating an army.

A mix of all will end up obviously in a disaster but selecting on any group will end up in a civil war or coup.

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1. jasonvorhe ◴[07 Dec 25 09:50 UTC] No.46180494[source]▶
Once the economy starts to collapse even more due to rising energy prices/cost of living they'll find enough people for the front. This would be the first war ever where no one showed up. Not going to happen. Bundeswehr has been whitewashed and propped up for years already in spite of being completely incapable of even providing Germany with defense for a prolonged time.

Many IT projects for freelancers in Germany are Bundeswehr/NATO related because they're among the few who hire people right now because of the economic situation.

Once we reach the point where people have to decide if they enlist in order to to keep on feeding their families, that'll sort itself out.