Mission Possible
October 8, 2007
Despite a recent attack that injured three German soldiers in Afghanistan, Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said there was a good chance of achieving peace in Afghanistan provided Germany stuck to its course there.
"I see a clear chance for success in Afghanistan," Jung said in an interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag on Sunday, Oct. 7.
The minister said only a combined strategy of military protection, reconstruction and winning the hearts and minds of people in Afghanistan could do the job.
"We can't win only by military means," he said, adding that there could be no talk of withdrawing troops.
"Only when the security there is self-sustaining can be begin to talk about withdrawing," he said.
The Canadian ambassador to Germany, Paul Dubois also urged Germany to keep up its involvement in Afghanistan.
"Even if it's not easy…we must continue to work there together and shouldn't doubt the mission," he said in a radio interview. Canada is one of the strongest US allies in Afghanistan.
Public support for Afghan mission waning
Their comments came five days before Germany's parliament votes on extending Germany's participation in the multinational NATO-led international ISAF force as well as the deployment of Tornado reconnaissance jets to assist the mission.
Germany has some 3,000 troops in the relatively calmer north of the country and has resisted pressure within NATO to send peacekeepers to volatile southern Afghanistan where US-led forces are fighting insurgents.
Public support for the German army's mission in Afghanistan is waning. Recent polls showed 52 percent saying that Germany should withdraw its troops.
That skepticism is shared by the opposition Green party which recently voted at a stormy party conference against extending the mandate of German troops and spy jets in Afghanistan.
Public needs convincing
Former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a member of the Green party, recently said he could understand Germans' squeamishness over the country's deployment in Afghanistan, saying it was a lesson they had drawn from their bloody history.
"I think it is good that there is a fundamental skepticism on military missions," Fischer said. "That is something I appreciate about Germany and that I often mention when I travel."
At the same time, more needs to be done to convince the German public of the importance of having peacekeepers in Afghanistan, some say.
Fischer said Chancellor Merkel needed to do more to convince Germans of the Afghanistan mission's importance.
That view was echoed by Jung.
"We have to make it clear how important stability and peace in Afghanistan is for us," Jung said. "It's always more clever to nip danger in the bud before it comes to us," he said, referring to the threat of terrorism that the region holds.
"Biggest challenge in the coming year"
Jung also promised to boost the training of Afghan armed forces and the police who are being trained by a special EU mission led by Germany. The project however has come under fire for lacking adequate planning and funds.
The commander of German ISAF forces in the north of Afghanistan, Brigadier-General Dieter Warnecke, told the Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag that boosting the Afghan forces was "the biggest challenge in the coming year."