MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : GO – MERKEL – GO ! – German military failings ‘begin at top’

Oliver Moody, Berlin – April 15 2019, 12:01am, The Times

Erich Vad, with Angela Merkel in 2010, said that the problem was weak leadership – Angela Merkel’s former chief military adviser has blamed the parlous condition of the German armed forces on the “cowards and bureaucrats” in charge, including the defence minister.Erich Vad, a retired brigadier-general who worked in the chancellor’s office from 2006 to 2013, said it was preposterous that Germany spent nearly as much on its troops as Russia but could not field an effective fighting force.

The problems of the country’s military are a matter of national anguish. The army is under strength, half of the air force’s jets are out of action and the navy has at times in the past year been without a single seaworthy submarine.

Germany’s defence spending is also projected to begin falling in real terms by the early 2020s, despite…  More via www.mesop.de