- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
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.”
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I don’t see this as Germany leaving history in the past, but being smart to protect their future so the that the lessons of the past mean something.
Germans are on track to elect the AfD. Do you think them having a 500 Billion dollar army is a good plan?
Germany, Italy, and Japan go to war against Russia and the US. Only this time the former group is the Good Guys.
Go back to WW1 and you’ll have a hard time pointing to good guys. Even WW2 was heavily sketch. The US was halfway in bed with the Nazis under Hoover and only at odds with Japan because it was encroaching on the British opium trade through Hong Kong and Shanghai.
These wars were, at their hearts, the end consequences of a century of industrial imperialism. The good guys were in Latin America and North Africa and the South Pacific, fighting for their independence and sovereignty.
Lieutenant George: The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire-building.
Captain Blackadder: George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganiki. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front.
You’re taking my shitpost comment way too seriously.
Pearl Harbour 2 is gonna be sick
Starring Cuba Gooding Junior Jr.
It’s the Terminator 2: Judgement Day of wars.
Italy has a grotesque far right wave RN, they are not the good guys still. Japan is not progressive enough compared to Germany, but I can believe Germany is far removed from being as much as a bad guy compared to the USA & Russia today.
I do not want the Italians and Hungarians on my flanks.
Japan has never really reckoned with its past. They were just pacified.
I judge the country as a whole for this, since they keep electing politicians who continue to do very little to reckon with their past.
I feel a lot could be gained by apologising to the people and nations for the past, and nothing lost, other than nationalistic pride, bring forced into self reflection, and being genuinely sorry on behalf of the country.
People who think they shouldn’t apologise because it wasn’t them personally are stupid, frankly, and standing in the way of reducing tensions.
Will it fix everything in the region? No. Will it take some of the steam out of the war machine? Probably.
Is that why Japan is the only WW II participant who has not fired a shot in anger since August 1945? Japan learned, the rest of you fucks failed miserably and continue to do so.
Oh don’t get me wrong. The strong adherence to pacifism is laudable. But they have not reckoned with their atrocities committed during and prior world war II. They practically deny them ever happening.
Your whataboutism is not appreciated.
They are not Registered Nurses.
Only this time they don’t have enough population to left to fight.
There are no good guys in war
Only this time the former group is the Good Guys.
Propaganda is crazy
You’re not suggesting that the Axis powers were the Good Guys in WW2, are you?
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I think you skipped over a comment in that chain.
You’re right, thanks
What choice do we have? I would focus on improving everything for the regulars and copy the Finnish reserve system.
for the first time, Germany possibly gets to be the “good guys” in a world war! Quite a turnaround.
With the Putin-loving, fascist AfD as the second strongest party in the country? We will see, but I do not have high hopes.
I’d like to believe they’ll kick the Nazis out of the bar before they reach the levers of true power, but I’m American and you see how well having that naive hope went for us.
Having said that, I imagine the Germans are at least slightly more cognizant of the risks involved than we are. Difference between “It can’t happen here!” and “It has already happened here and it was bad.”
Having said that, I imagine the Germans are at least slightly more cognizant of the risks involved than we are.
Yeah one would think so, huh? But nope, right now nothing points to that. The last government declined to start the banning process against the AfD even tho the chances of success would have been really high. And that was a coalition of basically the labor party (as far as they think of themselves at least), the greens and some neo-lib shitheads. With the conservative government of right now? Lmao fat chance.
So my understanding is that they are the second strongest, but still at around 20% the other German parties formed a coalition that froze Afd out of power. So they are still a threat in future elections, but they have limited impact on policy for now.
Is that correct or have I got the wrong idea?
Mostly correct yes. The main danger lies in future elections.
Yes and no. In general you are right, but there are municipalities in East Germany that had over 50% of the votes go to the AfD… which is still absolutely insane to me. I’m sure it’s the same in the USA, but cities tend to lean more left and rural regions tend to heavily favor the AfD (or slightly less/more right parties).
Fuck trump, he made world less safe in so many ways and now in addition to threatening Canada and Greenland he appears to be planning to stay a war with Iran.
And get this, the excuse is because they don’t want to negotiate suspending their nuclear program after he broke previous agreement.
I mean, were they really The Bad Guys™ in WW1?
From what I understand about WW1, it was just a huge clusterfuck
If they won they wouldn’t be.
From my point of view, everyone was the Bad Guys in ww1.
No we weren’t! - Belgium.
THEN YOU ARE LOST, ANAKIN!
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
The Austrians were the bad guys in WW1. Germany just played European Great Power politics like everyone else.
for the first time, Germany possibly gets to be the “good guys” in a world war! Quite a turnaround.
what is this from I must see this immediately
also, yoink.
That is absolutely gonna be a relevant gif in the near future, I can just see it.
what is this from I must see this immediately
Danger 5
thaaaaank you, that’s goin’ in the seedbox
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).
Germany on track for the greatest redemption arc of all time lmao
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].“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.
Cue Red Alert theme
They’re literally supporting genocide.
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.
Because Germany is on your side?
Careful that you don’t draw the wrong conclusion.
who says I think Germany would be on our side?
at this rate, the US is looking more and more like it’ll jump into bed with Russia than the rest of NATO.
It feels a bit weird being on the German side for once, also their track record of succeeding isn’t that great, but I love our neighbors and I fully support them.
I’m just, sad the world is falling into another world war while we also just could be more kind and forgiving towards each other. It would save a lot of lives and leads of pain and agony.
None of this would have been necessary if it wasn’t for republicans.
Not just republicans. Democrats in the US are right wing too. The entire country is fucked up, the reps just speed up the process exponentially. But don’t forget the most immigrants who have been thrown out was during Obama and Biden. Biden supported Israel too, with loads of weapons.
I call them the Republicrats and get attacked as being a centrist. That is the perversion of this situation is that I don’t think either part of our one party system give two shits about me. The only thing about the democrat faction is they are not trying to put people in real cages. Just trap them in wage slavery.
Right… As if incarceration didn’t increase during dems terms. As if there weren’t crimes against humanity in prisons and detention centers thanks to dems.
Its been increasing no matter who has been in office as long as I have been alive. Its never gone down. So your point to me is meaningless.
It actually went down during Trumps first term. That fucking idiot even failed in the thing he wanted most.
If only American OPSEC was clean.
We are not the same Germany, with exception to the Prussian military discipline that is buried deep within us. Thanks to morons in DC and Moscow, they are forcing to break the pacifistic dam that we were force to build post WW II.
So yes forgiving and all that. Here are the steps: 1 Putin removes his troops from the occupied territories 2 he apologizes 3 maybe someone forgives him.
Well yeah, but what I wished was that he wouldn’t have invaded in the first place, no totalitarian rulers, no people declaring wars as a dick measuring contest. No Putin in the first place. Putin will never give up and apologize, but hopefully he dies and his replacement would retreat, apologize and help Ukraine fix their country. But the chance of that happening is little to none, the next in line is probably just as bad as Putler.
Their success rate would have been a lot higher if they had known when to stop ;-). I think if the stated goal of defending Europe from Russia doesn’t change that they have a very good chance of success given the numbers they are talking about.
I also wonder how much farther their war efforts would have gone had they not wasted time, men, and resources on ineffective warfare like that massive train driven cannon. Its a lot of effort and resources to set up double track rails just to miss most of your shots.
Or if they only focused on Brittain and didn’t invade Russia for one, especially with summer gear in winter.
They might have fared better without the meth addictions too
The opposite is probably true. The blitzkrieg strategy relied on soldiers being able to fight effectively for days on end without sleep. It definitely isn’t a sustainable way to treat your troops but it was very effective and not possible without Pervitin.
That part worked. The resultant addictions didn’t really help. Like the decisions got worse over time, even when it was a pipe dream in the first place.
You’d almost need to take your front line troops after a few days/week of methed up raids and then put them into rehab backline labor positions. Rinse and repeat until you win the war or the troops hold a methed up mutiny.
methed up mutiny
Band name :)
Generally incompetent leaders who promoted people to positions of power based on their loyalty rather than merit also.
Just the whole general way they did everything, I’d say.
The crazy thing that still makes my head spin and that I fail to process properly is that Europe would still be under Nazi regime today had they not attacked Russia … despite all the crimes. How do you deal with that? idk
I’m not sure it would. The Nazi economy was supported by plunder, they had to keep attacking to fund it. They couldn’t get to Britain or America, and they had otherwise more or less run out of Europe.
I don’t want to imagine the kind of atrocities they could have committed in the time that it would take for them to collapse, but I do think the collapse would have come
thank you for that idea, that kinda calms me down a bit (actually a lot more than just a bit) :D
They are good as long as they don’t have a demented drug user has their leader.
Check, no Adolf Musk as bundeskanzler
Trump did so much blow that his asshole fell off.
I mean the track record is pretty good as long as you don’t just stop at the 20th century.
There were no world wars pre 20th century. But yeah, Germany, Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation were pretty successful pre 20th century.
They were actually multiple world Wars pre 20th century.
There’s a lot of money to be made from a war.
Yet it costs much more, and not just money.
USAmerica has made shit loads off war.
And the rest of the world had to pay for it.
It feels a bit weird being on the German side for once
It should feel “weird” to support genocide.
That doesn’t feel weird, it feels totally fucked up. The Dutch government is the same, maybe not as bad as Germany but still. There’s a ban on supplying them with weapons, but the Dutch government is finding loopholes to do it anyway. I’m totally disgusted by it. Fuck Israel, bunch of fucking nazis. Out of everyone on this planet, especially them should know better.
Good article.
I appreciate that this was the photo the bbc chose to express German concern over US Russian relations;
I also see Putin as quite very
Very, quite
Yes, shallow and pedantic.
Verily
I only see Putin as “really” but then I’m not German
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_God%2C_Help_Me_to_Survive_This_Deadly_Love?wprov=sfla1
I wonder, is it meant to look like the famous graffiti?
very well could be.
I did not realize that graffiti was based on an actual photograph.
Hand way too big.
great point. The orange should also be just the front of his face. the edges and neck should be his naturally translucent un-oranged wrinkly skin.
Liberal qanon loves the homophobic conspiracies.
qanon is wildly conservative.
and what’s homophobic to you about two guys kissing?
Misleading title ass click bait type shit.
A bit concerning if an AfD take-over can’t be completely ruled out.
Yeah I’m a bit tired of bought out politicians dismantling a country from the inside.
Probably the biggest loophole that HAS to be fixed!
The biggest problem with democracy is that voting isn’t mandatory, and 25% of any population is dumb as bricks.
I would estimate the number is higher than 25% (and growing all the time)
In 4 years. But still, shit. Hadn’t even thought about it.
That’s one of the reason governments shouldn’t have any power. Good luck when in the nearby future adolf hitler II becomes the president of a police state with an army ready for war…
It’s already hapoened in the US.
The AfD may be hard right but I can’t see any Germans getting in bed with Russia.
The AfD is in bed with Russia though.
What the hell is with the Germans and austerity? They’ve been holding their own country back for over 15 years
Germany abdicated their monetary sovereignty to the EU, thus impoverishing themselves in service to international capital.
But their punishment and exploitation is nothing compared to Greece, etc.
I thought Germany was the EU’s economic powerhouse? No?
It is.
This is not just about security, this is about safeguarding the last bastions of real democracy.
I think you mean white supremacy.
What’s your problem, dude.
this is about safeguarding the last bastions of real democracy
Yea sure thing…
I feel like this is a good idea but I also saw what Germany did to Brazil in that World Cup and there needs to be a plan for them going too far and hurting people just for living.
And they did hold back that day, after the first 4 goals +/-, just to avoid embarrassing the host that much further.
😂
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I feel like I’m doing ok. I want the Fediverse to happen and I imagine I have way more likes than dislikes. (I don’t know how to check.)
Sometimes, jokes don’t hit. Life has upvotes and downvotes and I accept both with the zeal of a competitor.
That’s the spirit.
But did Germany defeated Brasil in the cup?
Yes. And they didn’t stop. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_v_Germany_(2014_FIFA_World_Cup)
It was mean spirited.
It was deserved as well. Brazil’s players were cocky as hell.
At least before the match.
Ehh, they scored more than half of those points within six minutes, and six out of seven within the first half hour. They stopped trying to score after halftime and dampened their post-goal celebrations. It seemed like they really weren’t trying to rub it in, but Brazil was just not being competitive.
but Brazil was just not being competitive.
That’s quite the understatement: It was so bad Brazilian fans started to cheer for the German team. Which, under usual circumstances, only happens when we’re not playing against each other.
All in all it could’ve been worse for Brazil: It could have been Argentina. And it could have been better for Germany: It could have been the Dutch.
1 - 7
Bater a mortos…
What was mean spirited? Your joke, or Germany winning 7-1? Because I don’t think either were mean spirited, and I’m Brazilian.
Germany winning 7-1. I was a neutral but kind of rooting for Brazil just to see a fun match and home fans celebrating. It’s always more fun when a team wins at home. And then minutes later. I thought “Oh no. Namar is out and Germany is the country least likely to hold back.” Brazil players looked dejected. Anyone with empathy felt for them.
It’s true, most of your comments seem to have a positive upvote score and therefore more upvotes than downvotes. Your Yale comment seems to have attracted the most downvotes in recent time, currently “-14” “upvotes”/points (seems that some lemmy clients just call them “points”)
So actually it seems that currently Lemmy itself doesnt support showing one users total upvotes/downvotes as this would very much resemble the reddit Karma system and they dont want that.
However as all your comments and the total sum of votes for each comment(I think also the bare numbers of upvotes/downvotes are visible via Api access) are public one could theoretically write a script or build this into a Lemmy client. However the 3 clients I just used to test this don’t support this and probably don’t want to.
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Maybe I’m a bit contrarian, which grows old but I try to balance it with sincerity and light jokes. I don’t have any particular agenda when posting on Internet forums, to be honest.
You do you as well. I would nominate “Meh, you do you.” as the Fediverse slogan if I had such powers.
You keep doing you. I found the joke funny.
If we’re all too afraid of downvotes to post our true opinions, Lemmy will turn into another echochamber.
Germant repeats history. More news at 11.
I foresee a non-zero chance that this could backfire and their new ever-expanding military budget gets used on smaller weaker nations and then as an excuse to divert funding away from services that people actually rely on.
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It took them four years to get the hint, but they got there in the end.
TBF they did get the hint but it took them a while to start doing something about it.
