Earlier in the week US secretary of defense Robert Gates sent a "stern" letter to his German counterpart requesting more German troops for the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Berlin gave its answer yesterday:
BERLIN, Feb. 1 -- Germany on Friday rejected a formal request from the United States to send forces to war zones in southern Afghanistan, the latest setback to the NATO alliance as it tries to scrape together enough troops to battle resurgent Taliban forces and stabilize the country.
Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung said his country's contingent of 3,200 soldiers would stay put in the northern provinces, where they patrol some of the most secure areas of Afghanistan. "That will have to continue to be our focus," Jung said to reporters.
NATO commanders have said they need to add 7,500 troops to the 40,000-member force that NATO oversees in Afghanistan. But there have been few countries willing to comply. Meanwhile, NATO has been struggling to persuade some members not to worsen matters by pulling out.
Joerg over at the Atlantic Review is alarmed, and sees this as a crisis for NATO's future. I'm not so sure. The NATO mission in Afghanistan is extremely unpopular in Germany. The polls I've seen indicate that only 29% of Germans support the mission. Why would they want to double it at this time, when Afghanistan is increasingly seen as a failed state? Even the US Afghan Study Group, in its new report (pdf) admits the entire strategy in Afghanistan was flawed. Unfortunately, the Study Group recommends basically doubling down ("increasing the footprint") in Afghanistan - i.e. continuing the flawed strategy with more resources - as the way forward.
In its final days, the Bush administration is peddling furiously to salvage its "legacy" and pin its failures on others. NATO is convenient scapegoat for the failure in Afghanistan. Jung did the right thing in telling Secretary Gates to f**k off that Germany would not agree to his request.
The Bush administration is having no luck bullying the German government, and I'm glad of that. We await regime change. It will take years to undo the damage.
Posted by: Hattie | February 02, 2008 at 06:11 PM
So if this leads to something like the "freedom fries" silliness, will there be "liberty burgers" on America's menus soon?
..Bushburgers
Posted by: gizmo | February 03, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Yet, this does nothing to explain Germany's failure to train Afghanistan's police force, which has only contributed to the problems there.
The German Government should just step away instead of pretending to help. That will do more good than standing around saying nein all the time.
Posted by: Fred Fry | February 06, 2008 at 11:40 PM