Germany rules out troops to IraqBERLIN:
Germany has ruled out sending troops to Iraq to assist US-led forces in stabilizing the war-shattered country, government spokesman Thomas Steg said on Monday."Our position is clear. The government is abiding by its stance not to engage militarily in Iraq," Steg told reporters, noting the government had not been formally asked for help by the United States.
Steg was asked about the German position after Defence Minister Peter Struck said in a weekend newspaper interview he could envisage NATO assuming a role in post-war Iraq and said that German peacekeeping troops could join such a mission.Struck had said such participation would be contingent on a United Nations mandate and a formal request from the occupying powers for assistance, and described the issue of German participation as "theoretical".Steg did not comment on Germany's position on NATO joining the peacekeeping effort in Iraq at Monday's routine government news conference.
Meanwhile the chairman of NATO's Military Committee, General Harald Kujat, called for the alliance to play a role in Iraq and said such an operation would be possible under a UN mandate, in an interview with Deutschland radio Berlin.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
