By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
HAMBURG/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Germany’s defense minister has urged a “serious national debate” about the future of the German military after warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack the country and much of Europe within eight years.
Speaking to trainee soldiers at the German military academy in the northern city of Hamburg and making clear he was also addressing wider society, Pistorius said: “Are we seriously ready to defend this country? And who is this ‘we’? This debate has to be had.”
This week, Pistorius said he was considering allowing residents without German citizenship to join the military to raise troop numbers from 181,000 to 203,000 by 2031.
Germany, still reeling from its World War Two past and distancing itself from antisemitism, has become a moral and economic powerhouse within the European Union.
However, faced with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany is now leading a fresh debate in Europe about threats that Western leaders believed would be gone with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the so-called end of the Cold War.
In recent weeks, military leaders in countries ranging from the Netherlands to non-EU member Britain have said their societies should prepare for a war.
On Wednesday, Britain’s military chief of staff, General Patrick Sanders, said steps should be taken to place society on a war footing and that the public should be prepared to take up arms against Russia.
DEBATE IN BRITAIN
Britain’s defense ministry quickly dismissed his comments, insisting there would be no return to conscription, which Britain abolished in 1960.
Yet in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Baltic nations, preparations are already well underway to deal with a potential Russian attack.
Back in Germany, the army has a chronic workforce shortage, with 20,000 recruits needed yearly to maintain current numbers.
A job in the military does not have the kudos in Germany that it does elsewhere, owing to the country’s wartime past, commentators said.
There is talk that, as in the U.S. military, where people can hope to gain citizenship in return for service, participants would be rewarded with a passport.
But for now, Germany and much of Europe face significant security challenges.
Pistorius said the peace and freedom that most of Europe had enjoyed for decades was “no longer an irrefutable certainty” and that Germany was being “more strongly and actively challenged than ever as an active participant in security and policy.”
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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