Germans doing their bit for Afstan

Further to this post, latest decisions by the Bundestag:

...
Despite the fact that the majority of Germans want their troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible, Berlin is committing more not less soldiers and equipment to the NATO-led mission at a time when the US is ramping up its offensive in the country.

On Thursday, the German parliament voted with an overwhelming majority to send four AWACS surveillance aircraft to Afghanistan, accompanied by up to 300 Bundeswehr soldiers. A total of 461 of the 557 lawmakers in the Bundestag approved the extended mandate.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung also took pains to reiterate their support of the Afghanistan mission on Thursday. Speaking at the memorial service for three Bundeswehr soldiers who were killed by Taliban near Kunduz on June 23, Jung refused to name an exit date for the German mission [emphasis added].

The AWACS decision came after a long debate over the intended purpose of the deployment. While the German Defense Ministry insists that the aircraft will be used solely to regulate the increased air traffic over Afghanistan, critics warned that, with their capability of transferring digital images in real time, the planes are likely to end up steering combat operations [not that, for heaven's sake!]...

Roughly 3,700 German soldiers are currently stationed in the Hindu Kush, as part of the NATO-led peace-keeping force ISAF. Last October, the Bundestag voted to raise the maximum limit of the number of troops to 4,500...

Most German commentators on Friday praise both the Bundestag decision to extend the mandate and the American offensive...

Thank goodness for that.