One of the major topics off the German news last night was the dismal condition of the German Army (lack of tents, cold weather gear, spare parts, etc). The public TV crowd (both ARD and ZDF) spent a fair amount of time on this topic.
They brought out experts to explain how the events unfolded. Then they brought out the political folks to talk over the woes. Blame got settled upon. I would refer to the story told as a good one-step 'dance'.
Most of the political folks talking? They were the ones opposing more money over the past decade to be spent on the German military. They were the ones hyped up on Trump talk of the two-percent goal for NATO countries to spend on their military. Oddly, that 2-percent deal wasn't brought up much last night.
What you generally have right now? The German Army has shrunk down to around 60,000 personnel. That's it. For 82-million....60,000 young men and women.
If someone came up to suggest some war-event might occur....giving them sixty days to purchase spare parts and extra equipment....they might be able to deploy. Beyond that? No, this is mostly just a staging force which play-acts itself to pretend it's capable when it's not.
It's hard to say how Germans watching this theater-like act occur on TV last night will act. Most will all remember the comments over the decade by the Green Party, and the Linke Party....to discourage money being spent. Whether this is a public negative topic or not....I'd suggest it won't make the top ten topics and that the public will just accept this as part of the new German reality.
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