Guns or butter?

摘要

In a speech to a gathering of Germany's top brass last December, William Cohen, the American defence secretary, called for a "complete reorientation" of the country's armed forces, including "a radical reduction and restructuring of an outmoded and oversized main defence force". The size of Germany's crisis-reaction force should, he said, be "doubled or tripled". This week, authentic-looking leaked excerpts from Germany's eagerly awaited defence review, due out on May 23rd, suggest that Mr Cohen's pleas have been taken to heart. A government-appointed committee, chaired by a former president, Richard von Weizsaecker, looks set to recommend that Germany's armed forces be chopped from 320,000 troops to 240,000, its rapid-reaction force more than doubled from 60,000 to 140,000, and the number of conscripts reduced sharply from 130,000 to a token 30,000.