Germany mulls reintroduction of compulsory military service – DW – 12/29/2023
www.dw.com
The Bundeswehr is facing a dramatic shortage in personnel. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rekindled the debate over reintroducing conscription.

At the end of October, the Bundeswehr said it counted 181,383 soldiers in its ranks — that’s still some distance from the target of 203,000 that the German military hopes to reach by 2025. This has given rise to concern in times of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has once again reminded Germans how quickly conflicts can erupt in Europe.

Since taking office at the beginning of 2023, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been thinking about ways to make the Bundeswehr more attractive as a career. He said he has received 65 concrete proposals from his ministry on recruitment and reforming training methods.

  • ElmarsonTheThird@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    A bit too simplistic. First, the service has been drastically cut down to first 12, then 9 months in the 90s and 00s. Second, you could also argue with moral principles of ethics without mentioning a deity, at least in the 2000s, when I was in the service. We even had a guy shooting a rifle for the first time and dropping it after the first shot, stating he won’t do that ever again. He left soon after.