Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr, recently got the all-clear for a massive increase in investment after parliament voted to exempt defence spending from strict rules on debt.

The country’s top general has told the BBC the cash boost is urgently needed because he believes Russian aggression won’t stop at Ukraine.

“We are threatened by Russia. We are threatened by Putin. We have to do whatever is needed to deter that,” Gen Carsten Breuer says. He warns that Nato should be braced for a possible attack in as little as four years.

“It’s not about how much time I need, it’s much more about how much time Putin gives us to be prepared,” the defence chief says bluntly. “And the sooner we are prepared the better.”

  • archonet@lemy.lol
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    18 days ago

    for the first time, Germany possibly gets to be the “good guys” in a world war! Quite a turnaround.

    • Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.org
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      18 days ago

      for the first time, Germany possibly gets to be the “good guys” in a world war! Quite a turnaround.

      • crushyerbones@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        Yes. There are actual letters and memos from german leadership about poking the Austrians into making the situation in Serbia worse in hopes a tiping point would give them an excuse to take swathes of Russia and France in the coming conflict.

        Bonus points: methods for the handling of jews and other undesirables in the occupied lands were already being talked about

    • index@sh.itjust.works
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      18 days ago

      “good guys” vs “bad guys” logic isn’t much wise. In the cold war USA and germany recycled nazi and ss members to war with russia. World governments are all corrupted and have blood on their hands, none of them is really the good guys.

    • gaael@lemm.ee
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      18 days ago

      Remember the first persons to be harassed, assassinated, detained, sent to concentration camps were german citizen.
      The first who tried to resist Hitler’s power, sabotage infrastructure, retrieve and send confidential informations to the allies were german citizen.
      A lot of germans were the good guys in ww2 (and afterwards for that matter).
      Whatever the conflict, let’s not forget that [country X leadership] is not the same as [country x as a whole].

    • nuko147@lemm.ee
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      17 days ago

      World war normally has not good guys. It is that Germany has gone so evil in WW2 that made all others appear the good guys. But in the end they all are evil (countries not people living in them, and no it’s not the same).

      • archonet@lemy.lol
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        18 days ago

        you know that article is dated September 28th 2023, right?

        now, I’m not saying Israel doesnt have a history of acting like bastards, but that’s just a wee bit before they started ethnically cleansing the Gaza strip.