German defense cutbacks pass key test

Fri, 29 Oct 2010

Berlin - Proposals to radically trim the German military and end conscription passed a key political test Friday, with the center- right Christian Social Union (CSU) adopting the policy at a party conference in Munich.

The vote, which reverses the party's long-standing support for the draft, followed a speech by the CSU's rising star, Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, in which he called the decision "patriotic."

He also stressed the benefits the changes would bring for serving personnel when they return to civilian life.

"We need to ensure that whoever has served our country has advantages, not disadvantages afterwards. We need to bolster up our reservists, not weaken them," he said. "Soldiers are telling us you have to act."

A panel of experts advised Guttenberg this week to cut the army, navy, air force and joint supply corps from 250,000 to 180,000 and eliminate half of the 100,000 civilian jobs with the forces. The forces have been told to reorganize because of spending cuts.

Guttenberg proposes suspending conscription and replacing it with voluntary service for young people of up to 23 months. Most personnel would be professionals, as in neighboring nations like France and Italy.

Delegates of the Bavaria-only CSU, meeting in a huge exhibition hall, adopted the proposed changes almost unanimously on a show of hands, after almost no debate. The chair said there were only about 5 votes against in the crowd.

The next step for Guttenberg is to win approval next month at a conference of the allied Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is active in the other 15 of Germany's 16 states.

If implemented, the changes would be the biggest since West Germany established its own armed forces in 1955, then wound back troop numbers and shifted to peacekeeping after the Cold War ended in 1989. Germany's other parties broadly favor the changes.

Guttenberg, a conservative, has used his public popularity to assure center-right Germans that defense cuts do not mean the country will be weaker. He consistently tops polls asking which German politician is best liked.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351053,cutbacks-pass-key-test.html.