Military

Murphy's Law: NATO Has An Incurable Disease

Early in 2016 German troops in Norway for a joint training exercise complained that they were forced to pause during training not because of any technical or leadership problem but because of new rules that took effect in January. These new regulations mandated that German troops could not work more than 41 hours a week unless they received overtime pay. But it was discovered in Norway that there was no money left in the military budget for overtime pay. Even though it was known that training exercises like this, that mimic actual combat conditions, would keep the troops active far more than 41 hours a week, the German soldiers were told to “stop working” when they hit the 41 hour limit. The soldiers sent the complaint to a government official appointed to handle such problems and the media eventually found out about it. This caused a bit of a stir in Germany because the government had been under pressure, from alarmed voters, to strengthen the military in the face of the growing threat from Russia and continuing problems with Islamic terrorism.