Strong agreement!
Good comment, rengineer, which people who criticise the size of Germany's participation in operations outside Europe should consider very seriously. Germany's part in the original NATO set-up was considerable (understandably), but the "mission creep" since re-unification has caused much justified heart-searching.
The present dire financial situation calls for reductions all round in all European countries, with serious potential side-effects on military programmes (and employment, of course). The claimed savings from cancellations of orders may run into expensive compensation costs originally written into programmes like Tornado, Typhoon/Eurofighter and the A400M, to tie partners with second thoughts into those programmes very firmly.
Not to mention the strong possibility that cuts now may well very seriously reduce military effectiveness all across Europe, "NATO" or not.
The next few months are going to be "very interesting times".
Last edited by Jig Peter; 8th Jul 2010 at 14:26.
Reason: typo correction