Sunday, February 17, 2008

Afstan: Why the Germans won't fight

At the risk of my being callous, it's time to get over it:
Germany's role in the Second World War has made it difficult to win public support for military action in Afghanistan, the German ambassador to Britain has admitted.

Wolfgang Ischinger said Germans had so often been told that their military had done "many awful things" it was hard to persuade them they should get involved in another conflict.

Germany is under pressure from the US, Britain and Canada to send more troops to reinforce the Nato mission in the south of Afghanistan, where the fighting against the Taliban is at its fiercest. Canada is demanding that other Nato members provide another 1,000 troops in the south if it is to remain in Afghanistan next year.

But describing criticism as "quite irresponsible", Mr Ischinger said that Germany had done more to help Afghanistan than any other European nation, including Britain. "In terms of financial assistance, civilian aid, military commitments, we would probably be the number one country," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"The UK has been the number one European military contributor for the last period but… as recently as 2004 the German contingent was bigger."

Germany is considering boosting troop numbers by 1,000 to about 4,500, but Mr Ischinger ruled out moving them from the more peaceful north [emphasis added--so probably no need for Canadian troops "rotated" out of Kandahar, as Denis "The Thug" sort of seems to want].

He said politicians had to win over a post-war generation. "You have never been in the situation, certainly not in the last century, where you thought that the military had no role at all abroad, but that was the consensus in Germany as recently as 12 or 13 years ago.

"It is only very recently that we participated in more direct peacekeeping, and more recently still in actual combat operations. We have come a long way."..

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

hmmm makes sense now.

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance and Germany doesn’t want to go to war."
"

1:08 p.m., February 17, 2008  
Blogger MarkCh said...

Yes, we broke the Germans in WWII, and turned them into people who are unwilling to fight in almost any circumstances. It's a pain in Afghanistan, but on the whole, it's better that they be the way they are now, than the way they were.

6:09 p.m., February 17, 2008  
Blogger Positroll said...

time to get over it
These things take time. As the ambassor has stressed, Germany has come a long way already:
< 1990: Homeland defense only
~ 1993: (Armed) peace corps (Somalia, Bosnia)
1999: Air war (Tornados in Kosovo)
2000s: Special forces (KSK) hunting Taleban;
Soon: Battlegroup for the northern command.

When Bush is gone, the next step might be possible ...

Right now, Canada should ask the Germans to send 200 SF along with the French to Kandahar.
No way Germany will agree to switch areas in Afghanistan, as
this would inter alia lead to a waste of knowledge and rupture relations with local Afghans / NGOs - and bad press too close to the next federal elections.

8:20 a.m., February 18, 2008  

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