armed forces
Inspector General Breuer: Be ready for war in five years
According to Inspector General Carsten Breuer, for Germany it is about being able to defend itself and thereby making the risk so high that an opponent decides against an attack. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Shortly before the Munich Security Conference, Germany’s top soldier has some bad news. Some German commitments to NATO will only be fulfilled later than announced.
Germany will need more time than announced to make its military contributions to defense in the NATO alliance. The inspector general admitted this Bundeswehr, General Carsten Breuer, in an interview with “Welt am Sonntag”.
When asked whether there were military capabilities that had been promised by the federal government but could probably only be made available later, he replied: “There are.” He did not want to say exactly what these skills were. He justified this by saying that an opponent could benefit from such knowledge.
The German armed forces – like NATO – are in a phase of upheaval, said Breuer. He added: “Honesty also includes the sentence: This will rumble a bit again – but in a positive sense.” He is in constant contact with the NATO supreme commander in Europe, Christopher Cavoli. He said to him: “Yes, please tell us what you can do now and when you will be able to do everything. We can deal with this much better than building a cloud cuckoo home.”
Union criticizes sharply
Union parliamentary group deputy Johann Wadephul (CDU) told the German Press Agency that Breuer’s statements stunned him. “Two years after the Russian attack on Ukraine, two years after the declared turning point, a year and a half after the National Security Strategy and over half a year after the historic NATO summit in Vilnius, the Federal Government’s top military advisor declares that Germany is in the alliance “It’s basically blank,” criticized the defense politician.
The federal government has formulated the right goal that the Bundeswehr should represent the backbone of NATO’s conventional defense in Europe. But it now looks more like Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to “sit out” his own turning point.
Breuer: “We have to be ready for war in five years”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned in the “Welt am Sonntag” that Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing his country’s economy for a long war. He said: “Because Russia is gearing its entire economy towards war, we must also do more to ensure our security.”
From the perspective of its inspector general, the Bundeswehr must be ready for war in five years. “Warworthiness is a process that we will go through. But we don’t have endless time for it,” Breuer said in the interview. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, a possible war is being dictated from outside. “If I follow the analysts and see what military threat potential Russia poses, then that means five to eight years of preparation for us.” That doesn’t mean that there will be war – but it is possible. “And because I’m a military man, I say: In five years we have to be ready for war.”
In the end, it’s about being able to defend yourself and thereby making the risk so high for an opponent that he decides against an attack. “That’s a deterrent. For me, the special fund is an expression of the fact that this has arrived in politics.”
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) also recently spoke of the need for Germany to become ready for war. In new defense policy guidelines that he presented in November, “warworthiness is the maxim for action.” Pistorius and Inspector General Breuer write in the document: “We must be the backbone of deterrence and collective defense in Europe. Our population, but also our partners in Europe, North America and the world, expect us to take on this responsibility.”
Heusgen: Russian attack on NATO territory not ruled out
The head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, believes that if Ukraine is defeated, a Russian attack on other countries and NATO territory cannot be ruled out. “If Putin doesn’t lose the war in Ukraine, we have to expect that he will also attack the Republic of Moldova or the Baltic states,” he told the “Rheinische Post” and the Bonn “General-Anzeiger”.
Inspector General Breuer told “Welt am Sonntag” when asked how likely he was that Putin would reach out beyond Ukraine: “First of all, this includes the intention. I recognize that in Putin from what he has written and said – and from his actions in Ukraine.” It also includes military potential. “We have seen that the Duma decided to switch to a war economy in Russia. So the potential is currently growing.”