Afstan: Germany flunking

That's what a senior Bundeswehr general says:

Breaking with a military tradition of keeping silent about policy, a top German general has branded his country's efforts in Afghanistan a failure, singling out its poor record in training the Afghan police and allocating development aid.

The comments came from General Hans-Christoph Ammon, head of the army's elite special commando unit, or KSK, whose officers are in Afghanistan fighting alongside U.S. forces against Al Qaeda and the Taliban [not as part of Operation Enduring Freedom any more--see below].

Germany was responsible for training the Afghan police, but the German Interior Ministry, led by the conservative Wolfgang Schäuble, has come under repeated criticism from the United States and other NATO allies for providing too few experts and inappropriate training.

The training scheme was "a miserable failure," [much more here] Ammon told DPA, the German press agency, after describing the German record in Afghanistan to a gathering last week of a reservists' association. The government had provided a mere €12 million for training the Afghan Army and police while the United States has already given more than $1 billion, he said.

"At that rate, it would take 82 years to have a properly trained police force," he said. More damaging for Germany's reputation, Ammon said, was that its police-training mission was considered such a "disaster" that the United States and EU had taken over responsibility...

...President-elect Barack Obama has made Afghanistan a foreign policy priority. NATO officials said last week that they were expecting the incoming U.S. administration to ask NATO allies to contribute more troops and experts in order to beat back the Taliban and train up an Afghan Army and police force.

Only then, Obama has said, can the Afghan forces take responsibility for the security of their own country.

Lord knows what the Afghan policy of a Liberal/NDP coalition government, supported by the Bloc Québécois, might be. Certainly not as, er, robust, as president-elect Obama will want.

As for the KSK in Afstan:

Germany's parliament Thursday [Nov. 13] extended the mandate of German troops serving in global anti-terror operations but reduced their number from 1,400 to 800...

The new mandate rescinds the mandate for German KSK special forces to serve in OEF operations in Afghanistan where up to 100 troops had been on call to help fight terrorism there [they were going to be withdrawn completely].

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had called for the end of the mandate as the elite KSK soldiers had not been deployed in OEF in three years [emphasis added].

The special forces will still be allowed to serve with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is under a UN mandate...

One wonders what they'll be doing with ISAF. More here on the German military in Afstan.