By Judy Dempsey
BERLIN: There has been no summer reprieve for Germany's Foreign Ministry since two German citizens were kidnapped last month in Afghanistan. One has since been killed. In return for the release of the other one, the
Taliban are demanding the withdrawal of all German troops.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats have spurned the demand. Nevertheless, the government faces tough questioning about Germany's role in international peacekeeping missions when the summer break ends.
The Social Democrats have put peacekeeping on the agenda of their annual conference in the autumn. Pacifist traditions run strong in the party: fewer than half of its members support military missions abroad. But the party leadership defends such participation.
These tensions have helped Oskar Lafontaine and his new Left Party. As the only party that has unequivocally called for the withdrawal of the 7,700 German troops serving in international missions, it is attracting disgruntled Social Democrats.
The public, too, is uneasy. In a recent survey by the Forsa polling institute, more than 65 percent of respondents said they wanted all 3,400 German military personnel withdrawn from Afghanistan.
German soldiers are not in the front line of combat in Afghanistan. As part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force there, they are based in the relatively quiet northern province of Kunduz. But the public has watched with disquiet as increasing numbers of Afghan civilians have been killed by coalition forces attached to the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom, a counterterrorism mission that works closely with NATO.
Even in Kunduz, after many months of calm, suicide bombers in May killed three German soldiers on foot patrol. This only hardened Berlin's resolve not to send German troops to help NATO's Dutch, British and Canadian troops fighting a resurgent Taliban in the south. Merkel said Germany was already playing its part in the north.
Nor is a single German soldier at present involved in the controversial Operation Enduring Freedom mission. Gernot Erler, Germany's deputy foreign minister, said the 100 German special forces who served in that mission after 2001 were withdrawn two years ago. "Nevertheless, the mission causes concern among the public," said Erler, a Social Democrat. "The Germans want more emphasis on humanitarian issues and civilian reconstruction rather than on the military. They want a reassessment of Operation Enduring Freedom."
German politicians have always preferred to talk about peacekeeping as a humanitarian task, never a combat mission. "The political narrative in Germany is only about civilian reconstruction," said Bastian Giegerich, German security analyst at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies. "The government is very hesitant to talk about a NATO offensive. It is afraid of using any words of aggression. To get beyond that, you need to have a clear political leadership."
When Gerhard Schröder, a Social Democrat, was elected Chancellor in 1998, he and his foreign minister, the Green leader Joschka Fischer, stunned their parties by supporting the NATO bombing mission in Kosovo aimed at halting the "ethnic cleansing" of the local Albanian population by Serb forces. That decision was pushed through the German Parliament, even without a United Nations mandate. Schröder and Fischer sought to justify the decision on humanitarian grounds, also citing Germany's international responsibilities.
Similar explanations were given for German missions in East Timor, Macedonia and Bosnia, as well as for the troops serving in Afghanistan.
"The Afghan mission is described as a humanitarian one," said Markus Kaim, European security expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, "about rebuilding hospitals and getting girls safely to schools. This is how it is sold to the public.
"There is no open or honest explanation as to why we are there," he said. "Indeed, the whole controversy over Operation Enduring Freedom is that politicians like to prove to the public that they are skeptical about the U.S. war on terror."
Germany's role in Afghanistan has earned it resentment from some of its NATO allies. "NATO is about solidarity, about sharing risks," said Kees Homan, defense analyst at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations.
"The German Army does not do any of the fighting in Afghanistan. Yes, it does useful reconstruction work, but for that you need a secure and stable environment."
German politicians say successive governments have had to tread carefully if they wanted to win parliamentary support, which is always required, for sending troops abroad. They do not want to be out of step with the public, whose political education since World War II has been based on preventing Germany from ever again taking on a militaristic role.
"The re-education since 1945 has been done very thoroughly: we don't have to fight anymore," said Jonas Böttler, security analyst at the German Council of Foreign Relations in Berlin. "The view is that if we are nice to everyone, we will not be attacked. The German public wants to see themselves as a civilian power in opposition to the United States. It is very difficult to explain to the public that sometimes fighting is necessary."
This deeply pacifist attitude has permeated all the political parties, making politicians wary of telling the public that the role NATO today plays in Afghanistan is not about foot patrols and soft peacekeeping. It is a tough combat mission involving casualties on both sides.
This attitude toward international peacekeeping missions has put Merkel's government in a particular bind. While Schröder, her predecessor, eventually came to regard NATO with suspicion and as a convenient tool for the United States to use in its war on terror, Merkel has pledged solidarity. Yet as the Afghan mission and many others show, Germany is not prepared to carry the risks. "Germany wants to be seen to be participating in multinational missions, but not do the fighting," said Kaim.
If, one day, the German public did accept that its troops should help with the fighting, some allies might welcome it. But others might fear the rise of a new German militarism. Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, warned against such a trend 17 years ago when Germany was reunited. Her prophecies did not come true. But nor has the unified Germany, so influenced by its past, yet decided the future role of its defense forces.
