What mistakes should Germany avoid as it "re-arms"?

Germany, with the help of the United States, has learned it’s lesson of world conquest. I doubt they will ever try it again, since the US has been such a good friend to them (and Japan) after the end of WWII.

I think the big one is making sure to invest heavily in iron-dome type systems. There’s no point in spending many billions of dollars on expensive and cutting-edge fighters and bombers if the runways and hangars can be wiped out in the first day with long-range missiles and they have nowhere to take off and land from.

If I’m not mistaken Germany was supposed to spend a certain amount of their GDP on defense/military, according to the EU rules.
They’d spend 1.5% where 2% is the rule.
I think that’s mainly because they were reluctant to spend that amount, because they don’t ‘want’ a reactionary army.
Maybe @ragingloli can enlighten us (more/better).

@gorillapaws I agree. With the world starting to transition from ground forces to air and missile forces, It will be increasingly important to invest in missile and anti aircraft defence systems like the Iron dome, as you mentioned.

As a layperson, my own views overlap with @gorillapaws and @vimead1. I think they should place a lot of weight on a “defensive defense” strategy like what’s described here for China and its neighbors: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0163660X.2019.1693103.

It seems to me like the conditions in Germany are less conducive to a “defensive defense” strategy than they are for China and its neighbors. But I still think it makes sense. We don’t want Germany to repeat the mistakes made by NATO in Europe and the US allies in the western Pacific, where so much of their defense buildup is based on the threat of a counterattack into enemy territory.

I understand that there is a place for “aggressive” things like missile defense, intermediate-range missiles, aircraft carriers, landing craft, and whatnot, but I think the US has relied on that stuff too much and it has scared countries like Russia and China. As a layperson, I think Germany should be willing to pay extra (and even take some military risk) in order to keep its strategy as “defensive” as possible.

In the age of the supply chain attack, I think they should also avoid relying too much on highly complicated equipment, and avoid building something new when something old is 90% as good.

No matter what kind of planes or missiles are used, the lowly ground-pounding soldier has to go in and hold the ground. It has always been thus.

Don’t get ripped off. Hopefully, the German government doesn’t get gouged and doesn’t spend on unhelpful items. They need to talk to soldiers on the ground, not just Generals in offices. Additionally, they should consult with other countries.

Also, don’t put someone in power who will want to take over Europe and kill a group or groups of people they target as inferior. Germany seems past that, but then you never know with any country.

Germany needs to get out of its dependency on other countries for energy. Especially, it’s dependency on Russia.

Contrary to what some may (seem to) say or think, you can’t drill a hole in the Earth just anywhere and pump out oil.

@kritiper Very true. @JLeslie I`m pretty sure that Hitlers manipulation and way of speaking got the German people to commit such atrocities and that before Hitler they didn’t hate the jew population so much, Then again I wasn’t that good at history class so sorry if i`m being ignorant.

@vimead1 I think there was plenty of antisemitism before Hitler. Plenty of Germans felt elite. Hitler seized on some of that bigotry and then also people fell in line to follow him either because they were sucked in by his rhetoric or because they wanted to save their own life. @Ragingloli would know better than me. I come with a bias. I was raised always hearing the Germans thought they were superior, even that German Jews felt superior to Eastern European Jews. The German Jews were very educated (even compared to the German population in general) and had good careers and positions. Eastern European Jews tended to be poor, less educated, agricultural or other labor skills.

The greatest threat to the world is conspiracy theories, because they are on trajectory to lead to a future Hitler-like situation.
As Germany re-arms, they need to go on an all-out domestic assault against conspiracy theorists.
(Which they are doing, to some degree. More than America, by far)

^^Yes, this.