Re the "Skulls and Bones" affair, so what?
I mean other people blow up weddings with JDAMs.
I've always wondered about the oh so patriotic Bild covering such Bundeswehr stories.
A real patriotic newspaper would've swept it under the rug as Bild does with most stories anyway.
C'mon, these guys are Fallschirmjäger, they're supposed to be attracted to death
From what I've gathered, the situation improved somewhat, with more agressive patrolling done by the above mentioned Fallis, which led to the suicide bombings.
Apparently the times when all german soldiers were stuck in their barracks drinking are over.
At least nowadays the Bundeswehr is able to send complete units to Afghanistan, not some 1945 style Heldenklau brigade as in the beginning.
I remember when half of the PRTs consisted of Artillerymen, despite the fact that Germany didn't have anything larger than a 20mm cannon in the whole country.
Now the QRF has the usual organic mortar battery, but they still can't do immidiate counterbattery fire against rocket attacks due to ROE.
Regarding our defense ministers, it seems:
Rühe was feared (Volker Rüpel)
Scharping was ridiculed
Struck was respected
But Jung is just hated
Funny is that among the four, Jung is the only commissioned officer.
Rühe and Scharping served as conscripts, Struck (IMHO the best of the bunch) didn't serve at all.