Germany rethinks its Afghan presence

A spate of attacks against German citizens has made the public wary of supporting their longtime ally.

from the March 22, 2007 edition

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The party's leadership has insisted that Germany must stay the course. "If we leave Afghanistan now, the situation would only deteriorate," the Christian Democrats' foreign policy spokesman Eckart von Klaeden told the Monitor. "Afghanistan would be reestablished as a haven for terrorists and Islamic extremists, and we would lose all credibility in the Muslim world."

Adding to German concerns is the recent murder of a German aid worker in Afghanistan. What's more, a militant Islamic group has captured two Germans in Iraq have threatened to kill them if Germany didn't pull out of Afghanistan by Tuesday of this week. Two other militant groups also recently threatened to retaliate against Germany if it doesn't withdraw. As of Wednesday, there had been no word of the hostages' status.

No 'war of aggression' for Germany

While the German Constitution, written in the wake of World War II, includes a ban on participating in any "war of aggression," Germans have made modest contributions to several peacekeeping operations in the last eight years. In Afghanistan, Germany has played a larger role, leading the peacekeeping force known as ISAF, which patrols the country's north. But for the most part, it has refused to send soldiers to the restivesouth.

This has vexed many of its NATO allies, and in the last six months Germany has come under increasing pressure to step up its involvement, as have other nations, like France and Italy, that have avoided sending troops to hot spots.

At the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, last November, assistant US Secretary of State Daniel Fried said that Germany's refusal to put troops in harm's way was a threat to "allied solidarity."

President Bush has repeatedly called on Germany and other nations to lift restrictions "so NATO commanders have the flexibility they need to defeat the enemy," noting the alliance was "founded on this principle." Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta also weighed in this week during his visit to Berlin with Mr. Karzai, warning Germany to "fight terror where it starts," or find itself under attack at home.

A litmus test for NATO

The pressure is only likely to increase as the coalition ramps up operations in coming months to keep the security situation from deteriorating. At the moment, insurgent attacks are on the rise – there were a record 77 suicide bombings in the last six months – and this year's opium-producing poppy crop is expected to be the largest ever. Government corruption is also widespread. These developments have caused alarm on both sides of the Atlantic, especially since the conflict in Afghanistan is seen by many as a litmus test of NATO's strength and credibility in a post-9/11 environment. "Failure could be a death blow for the organization," says Constanze Stelzenmüller, who directs the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

These concerns are not lost on German leaders, and the upper ranks of the grand coalition government have recently voiced a willingness to take German troops into the danger zone despite strong public opposition if the situation requires. "In the case of an emergency we would send troops to the south," says Mr. von Klaeden. "It would be our responsibility."

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