fucher,

Which germans should the US thank?

Anno

Without going into the rather bitter and boring discussion of the death of service members, your comment lacks both perception and depth.

It is unfortunate any service member of any nation dies while on active duty. Be thankful as I am that this is a short list for Germany.

I believe the majority of those you referenced in your comment were non combat deaths. That these deaths happened in Afghanistan is both immaterial and secondary. Their loss would have been felt by their families just as greatly as if they had died during a training exercise within Germany or in a skiing accident while on vacation. The reality is these families have lost a loved one.

To say some how there is an obligation for Americans to thank these families is disingenuous. Neither the German government nor the German people ever thanked the thousands of US service member’s families whose sons died while training in Germany to protect Germans prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. That you would somehow hold the US to a higher standard than Germany is understandable. I happen to also.

You do in a round about way raise an interesting question. That question is, “Why is Germany in Afghanistan?”

Your stated reason, in support of the US, is not very valid and surely is not sufficient reason to put German soldiers in harms way. If this is the rational for German deployment then it might explain the why German forces have not been committed to combat leaving the heavy lifting to others. That would seem a reasonable conclusion if the majority believes as you apparently do that Germany has no strategic interests in seeing a stable democratic Afghanistan then German forces should be withdrawn now.

Your comment also raises the central issue of what is wrong with this so called ‘white paper”. To publish such a paper there has to be a foreign policy. That foreign policy must reflect what Germany feels are its strategic and vital interests. These have yet to be defined.

This is not necessarily a major failing of Germany since Germany is a relative new nation in the geopolitical world. Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall there was no need for Germany to define these interests. Today there is a need for definition. Germany needs to get on with it. Until such time as these interests are defined, Germany will remain both adrift and a wild card. Trying to defer German interests to the EU will result in long term disappointment. Then again maybe this is what Germany wants. To have no foreign policy and therefore not to be held to accountability for this policy. It is an easy route to take.

So from the German actions to date and reading the “white paper”, it would appear the only strategic interest Germany can currently identify is to keep the US in NATO and to provide the minimum support possible to prevent a disbanding of NATO all the time making a huge issue out of its minimal contributions.

It is a great game, for you hopefully you can continue to play it.

Ammo,

You can call this telephone number, 496221-578084. It is the Safety Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1 HQ USAREUR. It should be more or less a local telephone call for you.

As a factual statement your comment about families being thanked by the Germany government or the German people is again false. Having known and written some of the families who lost sons in Germany, I can assure you they did not receive letters of thanks for the sacrifice of their love ones.

As to where NATO should deploy, maybe the best place is back in its barracks. Fortunately there are some who realize the importance of the South. That Germany lacks the political will to deploy it soldiers into combat is also an unfortunate fact.