Germans in Afghanistan

[oakfox]

Sure. Although it turned out that it is quite hard to get appropriate articles in English.

1) I do know wikipedia is not a reliable source - but best to my knowledge the information regarding German involvement is mainly accurate.

Harekate Yolo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaliti...nistan_in_2007

Anaconda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Anaconda

An interesting anecdote is that the German public was kept oblivious of the fact that German special forces participated in the battle at tora-bora. The classified information became disclosed when a former Guantanamo inmate (Turkish national) accused German special forces (KSK) of having participated in mistreatment (i.e. he claimed they rammed his head to the ground holding him heels over head or sth.). The claims could not been proven and I personally see them as an attempt to get rich by suing - leveraging the anti-military biased media. However, the incident rose a lot of discussion whether the secretive nature of the KSK was justified.

Another relevant article mentioning harekate yolo is http://www.spiegel.de/international/...523805,00.html

(although it contains some mistakes regarding the facts)

2) An old article (1993) hinting at the constitutional issue: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...57C0A965958260

(Note, the constitution has not been adapted since the article was written - so, the problem remains unaddressed).

For those of you who speak German, the constitution can be downloaded at http://www.bundestag.de/interakt/inf...6_download.pdf

The relevant part is art. 26 (I).

If you speak German, and are interested in an impression of the German mood and foreign politics viewed through the eyes of German soldiers a good place to visit may be the following board (somewhat a German version of lightfighter - but with a seemingly stronger focus on political aspects... you know, less opportunity to talk about trigger time ... so what can you do...): http://www.sondereinheiten.de/forum/index.php

Additional remark: The supreme court would not have allowed a German participation in Iraq. Reference (German): http://dejure.org/dienste/lex/GG/26/1.html

[Surferbeetle]

Sure. Although it turned out that it is quite hard to get appropriate articles in English.

Oakfox,

Thanks for the references.

All,

For the 'German View' in English this website ( http://atlanticreview.org/ ) is an interesting place to jump into the pool from and they do have some commentary on Jan 15 with regard to Mr. Gates' comments.

Der Spiegel has an English portion of their website that is always of interest, and as Oakfox mentioned this particular article deals with Germany's concerns about the dangers in Afghanistan and the debate about reconstruction (north) and combat duties (south). ( http://www.spiegel.de/international/...523805,00.html )

The Berliner Umschau ( http://www.berlinerumschau.com/ ) has a short article (German) today about Ukraine's written response to NATO which defines/clarifies their entry in a 'Membership Action Plan' and which was signed by their president, Viktor Juschtschenko, their prime minister Julia Timoschenko, and a parlimentary leader by the name of Arseni Jazenjuk.

Die Ziet always has thoughtful pieces and the recent one (German) on Afghanistan captures the parliamentary concern about the 'thin edge of a wedge' in the form of a Bundeswehr QRF leading to regular combat duties. This debate has been precipitated by Norway's upcoming mid-year withdrawal from ISAF. ( http://www.zeit.de/online/2008/03/bu...eingreiftruppe )

Sueddeutsche.de has a funny article about us gun-loving Americans in German ( http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt7m1/pa...el/650/153259/ ) which definitely puts a slant on things. The author appears to have been taken in by our Hip-Hop & NRA IO Plan.

Happy reading.

Steve