Here are some bitter truths about the Bundeswehr: 1. 400 billion euros on the Bundeswehr is as effective as 4000 liters of water on a cactus. The Bundeswehr as an organization is so exhausted that it can hardly take on and implement investments in a meaningful way. 2. The procurement office in Koblenz is a deeply corrupt and spectacularly inefficient, completely dysfunctional authority. These people will manage to waste 70 cents of every euro through bureaucracy, corruption, consultants, endless legal processes, etc. The greatest enemy of German defense capability is this authority, directly followed by the Ministry of Defense, which has bred nothing more than worrier-cover-my-ass lieutenant colonels with degrees in social education. 3. The best young officers with operational or even combat experience have been driven away in recent years by the spectacular incompetence, inertia, and gloom of the Bundeswehr authority. The Bundeswehr suffered a brain drain because it was more about vegan food, diversity, trans soldiers and childcare than about a powerful elite force that people are proud to serve with. 4. The abolition of conscription has simply destroyed recruitment. 5. In operations, the Bundeswehr is mostly in the way of the Allies. "German Red Card Holder" is an international running joke about the notorious obstruction mentality of Germans in operations. Bound by countless, confusing, often grotesque-seeming rules of engagement. In Afghanistan, German pilots were not allowed to fly at night and in bad weather. Against ISIS, Germany was only allowed to take useless aerial photographs while all other nations bombed our worst enemies. 6. The Bundeswehr has completely missed the age of drones and special operations forces. There is a deep distrust in the ministry of all elite, specialized forces that could kill in an emergency. The best in the Bundeswehr are monitored and harassed under suspicion of being "right-wing" - by the political leadership. There are no great military thinkers. 7. The Bundeswehr is a technological failure. The integration of real-time data into ongoing operations is almost non-existent. Listening in on a telephone call and simultaneously observing the target with an armed drone - pure science fiction for the Bundeswehr. 8. The Bundeswehr has no significant reconnaissance of its own. It is left behind digitally. The BND did not even notice that Kabul fell and Putin invaded Ukraine. The troops are blind on the battlefields of the 21st century. 9. From waste separation to military police flashing their lights, the Bundeswehr takes every German rule madness into action. It is the most bizarre symptom of total defocusing. 10. The German Air Force would not even be able to establish sovereignty and dominance in German airspace against a powerful enemy. 11. Without a total reform (tear down and rebuild) of the German defense bureaucracy, any investment in the Bundeswehr is a waste of money. When it comes to key assets, the "European arms industry" is hopelessly left behind or even dead. Either you buy US products with standard contracts from the manufacturers or the armament is DOA. Dead on Arrival. 12. The most important point: Defence capability begins with the population. NATO is not in danger because of Trump, but because no one in the world still believes that the Europeans, especially the Germans, are willing to enter into military confrontation. If Putin were to attack the Baltic states, there would be an 80 percent majority in Germany against German loyalty to the alliance. Even if Putin were to wipe out Fulda with nuclear weapons, the majority in Germany would be against a nuclear counterattack and the expansion of the confrontation. Every despot knows that. Article 5 only exists on paper because the mentality behind it has been politically worn down for decades. Now honestly, what are the billions supposed to achieve?