Germany Closes the Defense Wallet

The cash-strapped German government said on Thursday that it remains fully committed to its role as a member of NATO but added there is little spare money available to the administration to spend on future military adventures.

However, the government secured majority backing in a vote on Friday to decide the fate of German soldiers serving with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Majority vote sees German troops extend tour by a year

A total of 473 legislators voted in favor of the one-year extension that will keep 2,450 troops involved in Operation Enduring Freedom throughout Afghanistan, Kuwait, the Horn of Africa and surrounding seas. Only 11 voted against and five abstained.

With the NATO summit in Prague just under a week away, Germany's statement on its reluctance to commit to further military spending will immediately muddy the already murky waters surrounding one of the meeting's agenda-topping subjects - a NATO multinational rapid reaction force.

The United States is expected to steer the discussions at the summit towards the possibility of creating a 21,000- strong force made up of international NATO troops that could be deployed anywhere in the world in under five days.

Fischer diplomatic about US plans for rapid NATO force

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer diplomatically called the plan "constructive" but stressed that it should not be allowed to interfere with the European Union's own idea of creating a similar force made up of European soldiers only.

"There should be no doubling-up, " he added. The idea of a European rapid force is one vigorously championed by Germany and France but one Washington views nervously.

Addressing the Bundestag on Germany's role as a member of NATO, Fischer told parliament that Germany and its allies within the organization should look towards a more political approach to possible conflict and to adopt a policy of diplomatic pre-emption in peace threatening situations.

"Crisis prevention is just as important as crisis reaction. The summit must not be solely about military capabilities," he said.

It is these military capabilities that are pre-occupying the German government at this time of belt-tightening. After one of the bleakest weeks in the country's recent financial history, the red-green coalition appears even less inclined to throw money in the direction of defense spending than it has before.

Germany cannot afford to spend big on defense

Defense Minister Peter Struck said that Germany's financial problems of rising public debt and sluggish growth meant that the country could not afford a massive increase in its own military involvement and capabilities.

"I am not going to promise NATO castles in the air, " he told the Bundestag on Thursday. "I cannot justify it and I do not want to justify it." Struck added that, accepting that calls for increased military spending would be a major theme at the NATO summit, other members would have to take into account the current sickly state of Germany's financial situation.

For 'other members' Herr Struck could have substituted the United States and Britain. Both countries have called on European nations to pull their weight in the transatlantic alliance by stepping up military might in the fight against terrorism.

Fischer says policy of 'force only' will lose the war

Joschka Fischer agreed that NATO had to adapt to the new threats posed by international terrorists but warned that while the war on terror had to be fought decisively by military means, "at the same time we must not restrict ourselves to that, otherwise we will fail."

Fischer quoted the success of the rapid intervention by NATO forces that prevented a civil war in Macedonia last August as a case in study.

However, with the German government and public alike concerned with matters at home and with its forces already committed to further service overseas, any future alliance plans that include military action will have to count on Germany as a political power only. At least for now.