From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: German Occupation Of Afghanistan: Willing But Not Able HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- [The same tone as though Operation Barbarossa had been postponed.] http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub={B1311FCC-FBFB-11D2-B 228-00105A9CAF88}&doc={255E2F6B-7B67-49C6-A1B1-9C494B5F5E8D} Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung January 30, 2002 Action, Not Words Berthold Kohler "You really can't have it any better," German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said after he told the Federal Constitutional Court that the German government cannot deliver on a promise to its allies. Even if you do not share Mr. Scharping's logic, it could not be clearer that the aspirations of the government coalition of the Social Democratic Party and Alliance 90/The Greens to play a leading role in international conflict management is a charade. For on the same day Mr. Scharping went before the court, the government announced that it does not want to take command of the international security force in Afghanistan. Such modesty is not the result of a conviction that it would be politically wrong to do so, let alone of a fear of being called the "lead nation." The reason why Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der's government has resisted the Afghans' express wish and ignored alliance considerations that make it seem advisable to take on this task is much simpler: Germany is militarily unable to do so. Given its intention to assume greater responsibility in international affairs, Mr. Schr?der's government does not, however, seem to have dismissed entirely the idea of taking over the lead in Afghanistan from Britain. The German government is well aware that the United States would have no objection to Germany assuming command in Kabul. As far as Germany's current military capabilities are concerned, the question then is who is more mistaken: the allies or the German government. The German military, in any case, is certainly under no illusions, and those who are able to say so admit that it is in over its head with its existing missions. Germany's armed forces are simply not equipped for a task like the one in Kabul. Yet the chancellor and his foreign, defense and finance ministers evidently needed to confer before this realization prevailed. But how long will it prevail? And does the government still believe there is a connection between military capability and international influence? If it does, then it ought to step up funding for the military immediately. It has long ceased to be merely a matter of the German armed forces' reputation. Germany's reputation as a reliable ally that can be taken seriously is also at stake. No matter how many international conferences Foreign Minister Joseph (Joschka) Fischer holds in Bonn or how often the chancellor visits the United States, in the final analysis, actions, not words, are what count in world affairs -- and elsewhere. Jan. 29
