Germany's Hollow Military

One look at this chart and the accompanying article from Der Spiegel on Germany’s military spending and it is easy to see that although Germany has contributed troops to a number of peacekeeping missions, when it comes to major action they will expect the "cowboy Americans" to shoulder the burden.

An excerpt:

But the demand for the Bundeswehr has grown faster than its capabilities. While countries like Australia, France and Great Britain have increased their military spending in recent years, Germany's defense budget has declined almost continuously since reunification. "Germany is among the countries that spends a relatively small percentage of its budget on defense," says the chancellor, succinctly summing up the problem.

Indeed, Germany spends just over one percent of its gross domestic product of about €2 trillion on defense, which puts it at the tail end of NATO countries in terms of military spending.

Remember Maslow's old line about when all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail?