Surprise: HRW Criticizes Germany for Cowardly Afghanistan Policy

Hard to believe but true: even Human Rights Watch criticizes Germany for its cowardly Afghanistan policy.

As reported in DMK, Germany does not accept a fair share of NATO's military burden in Afghanistan. Now Kenneth Roth, HRW's executive director, harshly critizes Germany's refusal to send troops to the southern parts of the country, where fighting with the Taliban is very intense. In an interview with German news agency ddp, Roth accuses Germany of providing troops only for the safest regions in Afghanistan.

But...but...we lost WW2!! Germans are still in a state of shock!! Our troops are mentally incapable of brute force!! (Which, btw, puts Germany on the moral ground as compared to that cowboy run capitalist, fascist, christian-fundamentalist state, ifyouknowwhoimean...)

Any diplomatic jobs available instead? Or, maybe, some interesting business opportunities for German companies?

Comments

[svetov]

Schröder was able to win an election running an entire campaign against George W. Bush and Rumsfeld and the neocons in 2002. I once thought better of Merkel ... there was potential there. Merkel wants to win an election. This is supposed to explain foreign policy and this is how the German media pundits explicate this lack or surplus of something or other. Anyway, the population sees no threat from Afghanistan's Taliban, only from America. The German people are maybe to the left of the Left party nowadays, and such sentiments are 100% mainstream. Once upon a time, a German chancellor didn't care what the latest Spiegel "Beliebtheit" chart announced before he decided on what he would do regarding foreign policy. Well, that is not how the German government does foreign policy nowadays.

[GringoTex]

All in all, this shows why German foreign policy is so frustrating for Americans. When it comes to selling to regimes such as Sudan or Iran, we get the pragmatic, oh what does it matter where we sell point of view. No principles need apply for commerce. When it comes to either looking at what the US does in places like Iraq or Afghanistan, or in giving some sort of support in those places, THEN the principles apply. Oh no, we couldn't do THAT!
OTOH, maybe Germany has not yet recovered from/ come to terms with WW2, and that trauma is behind a lot of this. For example, I was a Conscientious Objector during the Vietnam War. At the time I thought that my reason for being a CO was based completely on sound philosophical and/or religious principles. It took me decades to realize that my horror at being faced with the prospect of killing someone was also based on my repressed reaction to the death of a childhood friend in a gun accident with his older brother.In that sense, maybe we should cut Germany some slack.

[Chrisimo]

Many of my countrymen don't see the Taliban as a threat. That is ok with me (although I disagree). What's not ok is that we profited from NATO membership
for a long time and now don't want to give something back.
I still hope that this will change gradually so that the Bundeswehr will take part in combat operations in the future. But this probably won't happen before the next election.

[DogandPonyShow]

Very interesting,

If the vast majority of German people see the USA as a greater threat to it's peaceful existance than the an Islamic-Fascist ideology, then we can all agree that the US and German diplomatic community should work out a gradual but rapid decoupling of our societies.

We can also agree that we do not share the same values. It is time for normalcy and do away with this so-called hypocritical "special-relationship".

I don't believe Germany should militarily assist the US in any way, shape or form. Likewise, there can be no need for the US to militarily assist a peaceful Germany who is afraid of the USA.

best regards

[Chrisimo]

Perphaps Germany can be downgraded within NATO. So if Germany is attacked, the other NATO members can send peacekeepers after the conflict is settled.

I remember when there was a military exercise with helicopters in our area. Many people were complaining to the soldiers that is was too loud and that the Bundeswehr should stop doing that kind of thing here. One of the soldiers asked the complainers for their names and addresses to record the complaints. At first they willingly gave their addresses. Then someone asked what the Bundeswehr will make of those addresses. The soldier answered: "In case of an emergency, we won't come to the addresses on the list." Suddenly the complaining stopped (Of course, accompanied by a lot of new complaints..."You can't do that", etc.)
I don't know if the Bundeswehr would have made good on that threat, but it worked.

[MikeHu]

As an American, I am perfectly happy to see "DogandPonyShow" get what he/she wants. Good luck with the Islamo-fascists.

[DogandPonyShow]

heh heh heh....

German Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, was forced to accept the Turkish government’s demand that it send its own Turkish fire experts to take part in the investigation.

A recent deadly blaze in an apartment building in Ludwigshafen sounds your usual premeditated hate crime to me.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry demanded an "extensive investigation" into that disaster, in which nine people, five of them children, were killed, and a baby was tossed from a third floor window to save its life. All were Turks (btw, Youtube is having party with flying babies).

Of course, when they find the perpretators, there'll be a public beheading in downtown Ludwigshafen Platz. Teach them infidels a lesson.

But...... why stop there Mr. Schäuble - why not replace US troops stationed in Germany and Europe as a whole with the much less expensive Turkish soldiers and sailors?

Islamo-Fascism? It's the winning ideology in Germany as well as throughout EUtopia.

heh!

best regards

[George M]

It is all well that Germans do not want to see their troops involved in Afghanistan. It is all well that the Spiegel and Die Welt pontificate about Bush’s war and all of the disasters that the Americans have created throughout the world. It is all well that the German government puts “conditions” on how German forces are to be used in Afghanistan. It is all well that the German army has their beer tents in Muslim Afghanistan.

However, it is not well that Germany sees itself as an equal to the U.S., Britain, China and Russia and continues to petition for a seat on the U.N. Security Counsel. Germany doses not bring anything to the table. Germany’s only credential, besides being a world class "Meckler," is that it is the largest export nation in the world. Germany sells and takes, but does not give.

I certainly hope that the next U.S. administration, no matter which political party is in charge, keeps Germany off the U.N. Security Counsel.

[LC Mamapajamas]

Actually, George, I would much prefer that the next US administration kicks the UN out of New York.