"Dieter Dettke, executive director of Germany's Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is close to Schröder's SPD, in Washington, said that while Merkel would certainly work hard to establish smoother lines of communication with Washington, in substance there could be little change under her administration as far as foreign policy is concerne."
The thing is: Germany isn't a military superpower anyway: No aircraft carriers, few transport airplanes and so forth. What we have more than enough is tanks to defend Germany from a Russian threat that is no longer there.
The largest part of the army is made up of conscripts anyway. So the 5.000 - 10.000 German soldiers that already serve around the world in Afghanistan or on the Balkans, is probably the maximum number one can expect from a German government anyway.
What Merkel will probably not do is sending German soldiers to Iraq. That would be hugely unpopular - and Merkel has already announced that she will pass some other hugely unpopular laws during the first 100 days (one cutting back the German "Kuendigungsschutz", i.e. protection against dismissal and the other limiting the power of the unions). Merkel is aware that there might be politically motivated strikes in Germany, so she is not gonna bring the topic of Iraq on the table as well.
What the US can realistically expect from a Merkel government is two things:
1.) Merkel might be more open to an increase of the number of German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and a change of the mandate of the NATO troops there, so the US can shift some more troops to Iraq.
2.) Merkel won't backstab - and that is for sure. Not only is her voter base more pro-american (or at least not anti-american), but she finds it important that the "west" speaks with one voice, e.g. to maintain pressure on Iran. Other than Schroeder who only poses in front of a TV camera and tries to play the tough guy, Merkel is far more pragmatic. Her approach would be: "Let's call Jack (Straw) and Condi and talk it over."
Germany, conscription, and expiditionary forces ...
A big reason why Germany is unable to sustain an large expiditionary force is because of its reliance on conscription.
People generally support a draft for the purpose of national defense, but, how sending troops abroad connects to national defense is not clear to many people. Conscription, therefore, is inconsistent with a democracy deploying expiditionary forces.
In addition, because of the heavy cost of training and equipping a modern army, conscript armies are ineffective and costly. We showed in Iraq that a relatively small, well-trained, well-equipped, and well-led army, supported by intelligence, air and naval assets, could attack and defeat a much larger army.
In order to support conscription, the German military has too many ground troops and has short-shrifted its air and navy.
At this time, only the Greens and the Free Democrats support ending conscription. The Free Democrats want a professional military, and the Greens ... well, who knows!
The Social Democrats were considering a professional military, but concluded that it would be more expensive and dropped the idea. This reflects the bankruptcy of socialist thinking, nowadays, when a decision as fundamental as fairness in pay is subordinated to the attempt to keep the welfare state solvent.
I remember when my father was an NCO and we lived in public housing in Omaha, NE, because we were under the poverty line. That was before we ended the draft. Whether or not we have a draft, we should pay our men and women in uniform fairly. Therefore, a professional military does not cost more, it just makes the cost explicit. In fact, by reducing turnover and for other reasons, it is more efficient.
Of course, we should always want to have civilian control of our military, and we should always want to have a healthy mix of ROTC officers, and to send many of our career officers to civilian universities for advanced degrees, and have National Guard forces that - usually - are not federalized, and to have other ways of insuring that our military is always a democratic military.
Looking at Japan, they have a totally ramped-up military, with excellent soldiers and officers, and top-of-the-line equipment. They now have three aircraft carriers under construction, of the type we deployed to New Orleans. These aren't Nimitz-class, super-carriers, but they are very capable, multi-purpose ships that can support a wide variety of very demanding missions. This is the way that Germany should go. We and the world need all the democratic nations to join in the defense of liberty.
Thanks for the information. Let's hope that Merkel does well -- for the sake of your country and mine.
WTF has happened????