In case anyone has missed it, Angela Merkel could not attend the beginning of the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires because her plane, which is operated by the Flugbe

In case anyone has missed it, Angela Merkel could not attend the beginning of the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires because her plane, which is operated by the Flugbereitschaft [0] (part of the Luftwaffe) had to make an emergency landing because of serious technical problems [1]. It's a sad state of affairs, and getting increasingly embarrassing. That being said, you have to be careful. There recently was an insightful article in the FAZ [2] (in German). Basically, a few years ago, the current minister of defense Ursula von der Leyen started to reform a department that may be seen as something between a gentlemen's club of military traditionalists and a lobby organization of the military industrial complex with around 250.000 employees. It swallowed up copious amounts of tax money, and Ursula von der Leyen made herself a lot of enemies among the profiteers of that system by trying to put this to an end. She then made the mistake of attacking Bundeswehr traditions which may be seen as politically incorrect and archaic from the outside, but are important for the troop morale. So, if you like conspiracy theories, you may argue that there are people inside the Bundeswehr who are interested in making the army look worse than it actually is, as long as it undermines von der Leyen's political position. [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flugbereitschaft_des_Bundesministeriums_der_Verteidigung https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flugbereitschaft_des_Bundesmin... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/29/angela-merkel-plane-unscheduled-landing-g20 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/29/angela-merkel-... [2] https://www.faz.net/aktuell/ursula-von-der-leyen-gorch-dock-16021524.html https://www.faz.net/aktuell/ursula-von-der-leyen-gorch-dock-...