– EuroArmy...For Peace or War?

Germany Agonizes Over Bigger Global Role for Army
By MADELINE CHAMBERS, REUTERS, BERLIN

A week after unveiling a new long-term vision for its military, Germany is agonizing about its global role as former generals attack the government for lacking a strategy.

Emerging from the shadow of its Nazi past, Germany has sought to expand its global role in the last decade and has some 9,000 troops in places like the Balkans, Congo and Middle East.

But pictures of troops in Afghanistan desecrating skulls and incidents off the Lebanese coast, where the navy is part of an international peacekeeping force, have raised questions about whether the German army is suited to taking on much more.

Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, who last week said he wanted to boost the number of German troops in international missions, underlined the dilemma on Oct. 30 when he talked about withdrawing troops from Bosnia.

His comments struck a chord with many Germans and some lawmakers who are uneasy with rising military commitments.

An Emnid poll for broadcaster N24 released on Oct. 31 showed that 69 percent of Germans think the Bundeswehr is overburdened and 60 percent oppose further overseas deployments.

"We want to carry out the jobs we do reliably and successfully," said Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler. "You cannot constantly expand the numbers," he told German radio.

Although Jung had previously signaled a desire to pull peacekeepers from Bosnia, some commentators saw his call for a gradual pullout of Germany’s 850 soldiers there as a knee-jerk reaction to the Afghanistan pictures.

Even Chancellor Angela Merkel thought Jung had sent "the wrong signal at the wrong time", German newspapers said.

FRUSTRATED MILITARY

The lack of clarity has also irked the German military.

"Politicians have not developed a strategy to take account of the fact that we want to intervene in another country," former general Klaus Reinhardt told Financial Times Deutschland. "There is no strategy for the Balkans, none for Afghanistan."

Former General Inspector of the armed forces Hans-Peter von Kirchbach warned in the same paper against unilateral decisions.

In Germany’s first long-term review of military strategy since 1994, Jung said last week he wanted 14,000 troops to take part in future international missions, up from 9,000 now.

Germans may not be ready for that. It is only seven years since the country undertook its first combat operation since World War II when it participated in NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia. The decision to send some 1,000 sailors to patrol the waters off the Lebanese coast this year sparked a fierce debate about Germany’s role in the Middle East 60 years after the Holocaust.

To compound the sensitivities, two cases of Israeli fighter planes flying close to German ships in the last week caused some tension with the Israeli government and sparked accusations the government failed to explain exactly what Germany’s mandate is.

Once feared as a ruthless and efficient fighting force, the German army has struggled to shake off its image as being capable of little more than helping with reconstruction work.

After years of underfunding, Germany still spends only 1.4 percent of its GDP on defence, less than other large European countries like France, Italy and Britain.

Bernhard Gertz, head of Germany’s army association, said last week spending levels affected the quality of soldiers.

"We must realize that quality depends on price and as we pay our soldiers so badly, perhaps we only get what can be bought at that price," he told Reuters.
 

Source	back to top	back to Headline Index
home	Word from main	back to EuroArmy Word from