We recently outlined how conscription is coming back to Europe, amid breathless calls from NATO officials for Western publics to 'prepare' for the possibility of war with Russia.
While Germany abolished conscription in 2011, some Berlin officials are calling for the system to be gradually rebuilt, with leaders of the German Christian Democratic Party having recently brought up the idea of reintroducing compulsory military service.
On Wednesday German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius kept the ball rolling toward this end, saying during a session of parliament, "We must be ready for war by 2029."
He continued, "We must provide deterrence to prevent things coming to the worst," according to Der Spiegel. But the reality that Germany's number of active duty troops in the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) is paltry compared to the leading Western militaries (or militaries globally for that matter), at just over 180,000.
Pistorius in his fresh parliament statements urged for a "new form of military service" that "cannot be completely free of obligations." The height of his bellicose remarks came in saying:
"Putin won’t stop at Ukraine's borders Russia is a threat to Georgia, Moldova & ultimately to NATO."
"Putin's war economy is working towards another conflict. We must be ready for war by 2029."
Earlier this week the chair of the German parliament's defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, issued a public plea for the government to activate 900,000 German reservists, citing the need to do so based on the 'Russian threat' to Europe, according to DPA news agency.
"Putin won’t stop at Ukraine's borders Russia is a threat to Georgia, Moldova & ultimately to NATO.
— Benjamin Tallis 🇺🇦 (@bctallis) June 6, 2024
[in clip] “Putin's war economy is working towards another conflict. We must be ready for war by 2029."
Boris Pistorius fires a hell of a shot across Scholz & Lindners’ bows. pic.twitter.com/oaXMUjCs9d
"Putin is training his people for war and positioning them against the West. We must, therefore, become capable of defense as quickly as possible," Strack-Zimmermann stated.
This new push to turn the Germany army around toward being able to achieve the level of a 'war footing' if need be comes following the defense ministry finally having confirmed in February that the country will meet the 2% GDP defense spending target in 2024, which is something that former President Trump had previously berated the US ally over. It's a historic first since the end of the Cold War.
