On German contributions (or the lack thereof)
It is interesting that, of all nations in Nato not largely involved in the south, the main criticism seems to hit Germany. This is peculiar indeed considering its past (and comparably intensive involvement in the north).
Some aspects of the German contribution (as well as of its limits):
1) German forces have been part of offensive operations in the context of Anaconda (special forces) and Harekate Yolo 1 + 2.
2) The Germans do have a problem to extend their mandate to the south and let things get hot with larger forces being involved (which cannot be obfuscated wrt to the media).
The WW2 aspects should not be underestimated. On the one hand, Germany gets constantly reminded of the 3rd Reich ( by countries officials including todays allies), especially when it is profitable from the other countries point of view. On the other hand, Germany was no asked to help invading a sovereign country (which they did) and join in messy warfare implying collateral damage. ... That is asking a lot.
There are two other points in this regard. Politically speaking, the allied tactics during WW2 to, by explicitly attacking civilians, bomb/shell/starve out any appetite for military campaigns out of the Germans forever seems to have worked out quite well. Today, the democrats in the States would be best compared to the German conservatives, i.e. the political climate is rather leftish-liberal and most certainly pacifistic. No chancellor would survive (politically) media reports of German forces having mistakenly dropped a bomb on a wedding ceremony... or sth. like this.
WW2 also greatly influenced the German constitution. That is, any form of offensive wars are forbidden by it. It has been controversially debated whether even peace-keeping missions are unproblematic. So, building schools in the north is much less of a legal issue than fighting Taleban in the south.
3) The opinions of German leaders as of how to bring peace to the south are quite different from the ones advertised and implemented by their American colleagues. If the Germans would enter the south then they would do so as junior partners following American instructions in a blood demanding operation the Germans do not believe to be promising. A question we all need to ask ourselves is whether it is feasible to build a stable Afghan nation with the amount of energy and investments the west is willing (and able) to spend.
In the final analysis, I believe it should be clear that, from a German point of view, their current contribution could already be considered being maximally supportive. I would be optimistic that those limitations may slowly erode as WW2 becomes more and more forgotten and younger (less biased by this past war) generations take over in all nations.
Bayernwahl bremst Bundeswehr in Afghanistan
From the German Newspaper Spiegel (Mirror)
'Bavarian vote slows Bundeswehr in Afghanistan'
Quote:
Die Furcht der CSU-Führung vor einer Schlappe bei der Landtagswahl im September hat Auswirkungen auf den Afghanistan-Einsatz der Bundeswehr. Nach Informationen des SPIEGEL soll die Truppe erst im Oktober verstärkt werden. Es droht neuer Ärger mit den Verbündeten.
“The fear of the CSU Leadership (Christian Social Union – a conservative German political party headquartered in Bavaria) of a slap (at their policies) in the state vote (Germany has 16 Lander or States) in September has affected the Afghanistan mission of the Bundeswehr. Spiegel has learned that the troops are to be increased in October. This has threatened to again upset the political alliance.”
More in German at the link....
German Special Forces leave Afghanistan without conducting a single mission?
If true, Wow:
Quote:
GERMANY has admitted its Special Forces have spent three years in Afghanistan without doing a single mission, and are now going to be withdrawn.
More than 100 soldiers from the elite Kommando Spezialkrafte regiment, or KSK, are set to leave the war-torn country after their foreign minister revealed they had never left their bases on an operation.
The KSK troops were originally sent to Afghanistan to lead counter-terrorist operations.
But Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister, admitted they had not been deployed "a single time" in the last three years, despite a desperate shortage of Special Forces units in the country.
Germany and the Haji Sakhi Dedby airstrike
Sole Informant Guided Decision On Afghan Strike
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Quote:
HAJI SAKHI DEDBY, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 -- To the German commander, it seemed to be a fortuitous target: More than 100 Taliban insurgents were gathering around two hijacked fuel tankers that had become stuck in the mud near this small farming village.
The grainy live video transmitted from an American F-15E fighter jet circling overhead, which was projected on a screen in a German tactical operations center four miles north of here, showed numerous black dots around the trucks -- each of them a thermal image of a human but without enough detail to confirm whether they were carrying weapons. An Afghan informant was on the phone with an intelligence officer at the center, however, insisting that everybody at the site was an insurgent, according to an account that German officers here provided to NATO officials.
Based largely on that informant's assessment, the commander ordered a 500-pound, satellite-guided bomb to be dropped on each truck early Friday. The vehicles exploded in a fireball that lit up the night sky for miles, incinerating many of those standing nearby.
A NATO fact-finding team estimated Saturday that about 125 people were killed in the bombing, at least two dozen of whom -- but perhaps many more -- were not insurgents. To the team, which is trying to sort out this complicated incident, mindful that the fallout could further sap public support in Afghanistan for NATO's security mission here, the target appeared to be far less clear-cut than it had to the Germans.
Anyone know how this is playing out in Germany?