Germans in Afghanistan

[Mike in Hilo]

Thanks for posting. Useful especially, IMO, for the example of the use of a "lokale Polizei/Burgerwehr."

Cheers,
Mike.

[Jedburgh]

PRIO, 15 Nov 11: A Reluctant Warrior: The German Engagement in Afghanistan

This case study first contextualizes the German Afghanistan engagement in light of the broader foreign policy concerns, and then focuses on the development and adjustment of military strategy in relation to other components of the engagement. In this respect, special attention is given to the importance of realities on the ground in Afghanistan, organizational (NATO) interests, and domestic factors.

[davidbfpo]

I was pleased to see this comment by Ned McDonnell III in a comment on a SWJ article. Often I have read reports of German inactivity, although recent disclosures in Germany have shown a higher level of combat activity existed:

Your thinking strikes a personal note as well. In Afghanistan, the convoy in which I was seated needed to assist in the rescue of an injured SOF soldier. We quickly found ourselves in the midst of a fire fight. As I sat there in an MRAP, feeding ammunition to my new best friend and watching mortar rounds land closer and closer, I was thinking about a couple of things. First, I had long decided that being dead was not a biggie; but dying frightens me to no end.

Second, I wondered if the perverse benefit to me of that MRAP protection would be that I would burn to death more slowly; that made me a silently simpering cissy. My younger brothers in uniform did not flinch and kept fighting not only to protect themselves and me but to give the wounded SOF soldier a chance to survive. Eventually, after the soldier was rescued, a Bundeswehr strike vehicle – assigned to escort the German military ambulance – fired a missile at the hornet’s nest to take out the protective wall behind which the Taliban had been firing on us. That was that.

Happily, the fallen soldier survived whole and I received ample evidence why I am one civilian grateful for the caliber of a large majority of our field soldiers. As a quick aside, what was interesting that day is how the Taliban knew the difference between German and U.S. armoured vehicles, like those that had escorted the German ambulance, in and out, to extract the injured American soldier. As the Germans approached and evacuated the soldier, not a shot was fired by the Afghan insurgents; not a moment passed after the exit of our NATO allies when all Hell broke loose, again.

That sparked a third thought. How much easier that afternoon might have unfolded had we had the option of going in with a lighter, quicker (four-wheel drive) Land Rover, going around that hornet’s nest, off-road over flat fields, to clear out the wounded soldier. By the way, that soldier, a friendly acquaintance of mine at the time, owes his life also to those German soldiers who basically broke with their chain of command to come to our aid.

Link:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...d-from-afghans

[davidbfpo]

In a surprise move, Germany's government announced on Thursday plans to keep up to 800 military trainers in Afghanistan after NATO combat troops withdraw in 2014. Though perhaps bold and symbolic, the move is also tactical in terms of upcoming elections. . . .

Link:http://www.acus.org/natosource/germa...anistan-missio

[davidbfpo]

A Der Spiegel article 'Learning to Fight: How Afghanistan Changed the German Military':http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-927891.html

That opens with:

The evolving role of the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, in the conflict has helped to dramatically reshape it as a more experienced and capable fighting operation. Yet the German public has become even more opposed to military engagement overseas than it was 10 years ago, calling into question what sort of role the Bundeswehr will play in supporting NATO and the United Nations in future international conflicts.

My title explained:

A turning point may have come in 2009, when former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg became the first German official to label German operations in Afghanistan as a "war," bringing the reality back home to the German public.

[jmm99]

Reuters, German court rejects compensation claim over Afghan air strike deaths (11 Dec 2013):

BONN, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A German court on Wednesday threw out a compensation claim by relatives of the scores of civilians killed in a 2009 German-ordered NATO attack in Afghanistan, ruling that the commander who ordered the strike did not act negligently.

The commander, Georg Klein, had called in a U.S. fighter jet to strike two fuel trucks north of Kunduz city, which NATO believed had been hijacked by Taliban insurgents.

The Afghan government said 99 people, including 30 civilians, were killed in the strike. Independent rights groups estimated between 60 and 70 civilians died.

"The chamber is convinced ... that the then commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team Kunduz did not act in dereliction of his duty. In ordering the strike he did not violate the norms of international law to protect the civilian population," the Bonn regional court said in a statement.

"He correctly identified the fuel tankers as a military objects. Because of the fuel they carry, they are useful for the Taliban's logistics and appropriate for a possible attack," the statement added. ...

And so, perhaps, it ends.

Regards

Mike