Germany Won't Lead Anything

You know my frustration with Germany. They do business deals with the Russians, chronically under-spend on their own defense, and then have us be their security guarantee against ... the Russians.

Now and then they talk big about a German led pan-European army. That is just another way for them to have others pay for their own defense. They should be a bulwark of strength in NATO, but they can't even do the bare minimum.

Maybe that is for the best ... Germany being Germany ... but I wouldn't put too much worry in them dominating any European defense arrangements.

Translated from the German on Spiegel, this is just pathetic;

SPIEGEL information, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has decided that the defense budget should rise much more moderately in the coming year than demanded by the minister.

Instead of the registered 47.2, the SPD minister wants his CDU colleague only 44.7 billion euros. In 2019, the Leyens budget comprised 43.2 billion - instead of a desired plus of four billion euros, it only gets 1.5.
...
As one of the main arguments in favor of their demands, von der Leyen always states that this is the only way to maintain Germany's commitment to NATO to spend about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on the Bundeswehr by 2024. The US in particular, but also many EU partners are harassing Berlin massively.

The promise seems completely unrealistic. The funds provided by Scholz are only sufficient to stabilize the share next year at 1.35 percent of GDP.

That is what you get for partnering with the modern SDP.

What a shame. I loved working with the German military. Great professionals, great people.

But ... well ... at least they still look good marching.