The German government and military forces are prepared to assume
more responsibility in the U.S.-led war against terrorism, said
officials.
“It is clear that international terrorism cannot be countered
with conventional defense strategy,” said a senior intelligence
official from the German Ministry of Defense.
In 2002, the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, appropriated
1.5 billion euros for international anti-terrorism efforts, in addition
to passing into law more than 10 anti-terrorism bills, including
the introduction of air marshals and increased oversight of monetary
transfers to potential terrorist organizations.
Germany committed 3,500 troops to Operation Enduring Freedom. While
the United States is training the new Afghan army, Germany is taking
on the task of training and equipping the country’s new police
forces. The program will cost Germany 10 million euros.
German special forces are currently on the ground in Afghanistan,
performing various missions. Germany has one battalion-sized infantry
task force operating in Kabul, supported by an air transport unit
out of Uzbekistan.
This is the first time in 50 years that German ships and maritime
patrol aircraft have been involved in a deployment like the one
in Afghanistan. Since January, the German Navy has had three frigates,
one fast patrol boat group and four supply ships operating out of
Djibouti, in the Gulf of Aden. Also, a German A-310 Airbus is on
alert in Germany for use as an emergency evacuation platform. Three
German maritime patrol aircraft recently began conducting reconnaissance
operations from Mombassa, Kenya, and two German Sea King helicopters
are based in Djibouti.
Unlike most of its NATO allies, the Bundeswehr, Germany’s
armed services, enforces mandatory conscription for all men, for
a minimum of nine months, though a substantial percentage of German
youths write objection letters and then are released from military
service. After the initial nine months, conscripts can choose to
re-join the military for another tour, after which time they can
retire. Others decide to remain in the military for the lengths
of their careers.
As far as defense priorities are concerned, the terrorist threat
is one among several problems confronting Germany.
Within the nation’s borders, terrorism “is not the
only threat we’re facing,” said the German official.
Far worse, he added, is the potential for breakup of government
structures, especially in the new democracy of the reunified German
Republic. Cultural and religious extremism presents a “high
risk at this point,” he said. The fact that many of the alleged
hijackers of September 11 spent time in Germany is an indicator
that the country houses a variety of religious extremist groups,
defense experts said.
“The core of what we do made sense before September 11, and
it makes sense after,” he said.
Germany has been dealing with terrorism and extremism in many forms
for the past decade, but has not experienced a terrorist attack
of the magnitude as the one on September 11.
A representative of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin said that Europeans
felt “shock and outrage at 9/11, but they did not feel the
sense of loss that all Americans felt.”
Europeans felt that September 11 alerted Americans to a “great
challenge, which led America to develop a new national purpose,”
and the German people’s perspective was “I guess we
should help them because we’re friends.”
When U.S. President George W. Bush visited Berlin in late spring,
he praised the work of German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder, for
bringing Germany into the international coalition to fight terrorism.
“The magnitude of our shared responsibilities makes our disagreements
look so small,” said Bush, in a speech to a special session
of the Bundestag.
Peacekeeping Operations
Germans believe that for transatlantic alliances in peacekeeping
to be successful, the United States needs to cooperatively engage
with its European allies, said the German official.
A member of the German Parliament said that the NATO alliance is
the pathway to assure common understanding of issues such as anti-terrorism
policies. “Europeans should not give Americans advice about
what should be done, but Europeans should increase their contribution
to NATO to strengthen the alliance,” he said.
A NATO spokesman, meanwhile, recently pointed out that peacekeeping
operations in places such as Afghanistan have “a long way
to go.”
A recently released report by the International Crisis Group charged
that the war in Afghanistan is far from over, even though a fragile
peace exists through the Loya Jirga, the tribal leaders council.
The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is
providing $3 million to the United Nations Fund for the Reconstruction
of Afghanistan, to implement the Loya Jirga. The funding was requested
by the UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, according
to the German Embassy in Washington. Germany has pledged $69.4 million
in 2002 for reconstruction and a total of $278 million over the
next four years.
Security inside Afghanistan is susceptible to crumbling on ethnic
fault lines, said former president of Finland and chairman of the
International Crisis Group, Martti Ahtisaari. The International
Crisis Group, based in Brussels, is a private, field-based organization
that seeks to anticipate, understand and act to prevent and contain
conflict, by keeping teams of political analysts within or close
by countries at risk of outbreak.
Similarities can be drawn between Afghanistan and Bosnia, Ahtisaari
said, but the sheer size of Afghanistan is currently an impediment
to permanent peace. “We know what a successful reconstruction
and reconciliation looks like, but we also know what Afghanistan
looks like,” he said.
“We have to get specific about what countries should contribute”
to the peacekeeping effort, said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution. Countries that should get involved
include Japan and future NATO aspirants, he said. “But those
who propose it (more peacekeeping commitments) have to be able to
answer the objects of people like [Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld,”
who favors a more limited peacekeeping mission,” he said.
Upwards of 25,000 troops are needed to keep the peace and to rebuild
institutions at a central level, he said.
The goal has to be to instill confidence in the regional militias.
The threat of less aid, not violence, should be the way the international
force should maintain order, said O’Hanlon. “This may
remind some of you of our experience in Somalia; this is a real
problem. The alternative is to let the country remain in chaos…it’s
a very challenging mission,” he said.
NATO is monitoring closely the success or failure of the international
peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, which is not strictly comprised
of NATO countries, but is a U.S.-led force with NATO, and other
countries involved. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, said
the NATO official, “is constantly saying that a war cannot
be waged by a committee, but it is a proven fact that the peacekeeping
skills utilized by NATO in Kosovo represent a successful military
operation.”
Outside of NATO, however, there is much disagreement on what constitutes
a “successful” peacekeeping operation. And there is
considerable debate about the role that the United States should
play in peacekeeping missions.
Another member of the German Parliament said it would not be good
if the U.S. remains the world’s only superpower indefinitely.
“If it remains the only superpower, things will become dangerous,”
he said. “It is a challenge of leadership and democracy…
we have to be a partner and combine our military leadership,”
he said.