Deployment of German Planes to Afghanistan Sharply Criticized
By Severin Weiland in Berlin
NATO has asked for six German fighter jets in Afghanistan's conflict-riddled south. Sharp criticism of the request is now being voiced in the German parliament. The Defense Ministry insists no decision has been made so far.
A NATO request for German "Tornado" jets in Afghanistan has kicked up dust in the German parliament.
A NATO request for German Tornado jets in Afghanistan goes "far beyond the limits" of the mandate the German military received from the German parliament, said Winfried Nachtwei, the German Green Party's parliamentiary expert on defense issues, in a sharply-worded conversation with SPIEGEL ONLINE on Thursday.
Nachtwei believes a parliamentary vote is indispensable if the government should decide to expand the German military's commitment to NATO operations in Afghanistan.
The idea of "mission creep" in Afghanistan is sensitive in Germany, where the military has been asked by more and more nations to and international organizations help stabilize trouble spots since 1998. Nachtwei's colleague Birgit Homburger, a parliamentary expert on defense for the conservative and business-friendly Free Democratic Party(FDP), was also critical. She said the mandate for Germany's participation in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) required a limit to the extent and duration of the German mission. "The federal government has to make sure this limit is not superseded," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
Homburger added that the government should verify whether other states could perform the surveillance operations Germany is being asked to carry out -- and if so, to what extent.
SPIEGEL has learned that NATO has requested German Tornado reconnaissance planes for deployment in the conflict-riddled southern region of Afghanistan. The request was made in a confidential letter addressed to the German military's General Inspector, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, by NATO's Deputy Supreme Commander for Europe and Afghanistan, Sir John Reith.
Also according to information obtained by SPIEGEL, the German government wants to avoid requesting a new mandate from the Bundestag, Germany's federal parliament, for fear of stirring controversy. It has simply tried to inform the parliamentary leaders of the various parties (and their defense experts) that six Tornado jets could be stationed in Kabul or in Mazar-e-Sharif in late spring.
Fear and denial
Chancellor Angela Merkel was still resisting calls for the deployment of German troops to Afghanistan's dangerous south during the NATO summit in Riga at the end of November. The Bundestag mandate calls for the roughly 3,000 German soldiers to remain in the relatively quiet north. But even before the summit, there was speculation in Berlin as to whether the German government shouldn't just provide Tornado jets. It seems likely that this option will be followed.
Still, the German government was quick to deny on Thursday that an expansion of German military involvement had been decided on, claiming that neither the Defense Ministry nor the federal government had reached a final decision. "We're still evaluating," said a Defense Ministry spokesperson.
But the idea of Tornado jets deployed in southern Afghanistan has alarmed the parliamentary opposition. FDP politician Homburger criticized the federal government's sharing of information. Apparently the NATO request arrived in Berlin on Dec. 11, but the government failed to inform even the chairmen of the Bundestag's defense commission during the final week of parliament sessions before Christmas. "This is a remarkable development," said Homburger. "The federal government is obviously sticking to its standard practice of not informing parliament quickly and comprehensively."
Doubts about "Enduring Freedom"
Green Party member Nachtwei says the support requested by NATO clearly includes assistance for combat operations -- to be provided by the Tornado reconnaissance planes. The government would then actively support a NATO mission that puts combat operations ahead of reconstruction, according to Nachtwei. "I have serious doubts as to whether the parliamentary faction of the Green Party can agree to that," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
Homburger didn't want to make definite statements on the FDP's stance toward NATO's request. She said the party would undertake an "unbiased evaluation" of whatever the government proposes.
In past Bundestag votes, the FDP has agreed to both the extension of NATO's "Enduring Freedom" operation and the extension of the ISAF mandate. In the Green Party's view, however, the US-led anti-terrorism operation is irreconcilable with ISAF's goal of contributing to both military security and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
Nachtwei told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "This is the hour of truth for the federal government, because it now has to give an assessment of ISAF strategy in southern Afghanistan." The issue needs to be negotiated on the political level represented by NATO, Nachtwei said. Until now, ISAF's strategy has been developed exclusively within NATO central headquarters.
Criticism was also came from a parliamentary member from Germany's conservative Christian Democrat Party (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). "It's a hostile act by the government towards parliament to take action on this point without allowing a debate on how sensible the Afghanistan mission is -- a debate that is ongoing in all parliamentary factions -- to develop," Willy Wimmer, the former parliamentary state secretary in the Defense Ministry, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
Deploying Tornado jets would give German military operations in Afghanistan a "new quality," Wimmer said, adding that the Tornado is a combat aircraft "that can shoot -- and not just pictures." Wimmer has long been considered one of the sharpest critics of the German military presence in Afghanistan. He views NATO's request for German planes as "the usual attempt by NATO to drag the German military slowly into southern Afghanistan."
Meanwhile, the German Foreign Ministry has commented approvingly on NATO's request. "I believe there is a basic willingness to provide such a reconnaissance service," Gernot Erler, a state secretary at the Foreign Ministry, told German public radio station Deutschlandfunk. No change in the current mandate is required to fulfill the new plans, Erler claimed.
