POLITICS: Germany Accepts U.S. Request for Greater Military Role

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Yojana Sharma

BERLIN, Nov 6 2001 (IPS) - In a major shift in the way it conducts foreign policy, Germany has abandoned its post-war ambivalence towards sending troops into combat overseas and this week responded positively to specific U.S. requests for military support in Afghanistan.

In what chancellor Gerhard Schroeder described as an “important and historic” decision, Germany is preparing to backup its political support for its allies by sending up to 3,900 troops – the largest German combat contingent to serve overseas since 1945 – pending approval by its parliament as early next week.

German troops are already involved in the war indirectly serving on NATO Awacs surveillance aircraft and on German naval vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean so U.S. vessels can move closer to the area of combat.

But the German public has in the past been wary of a front-line military role and direct troop involvement leading to a cautious stance by the government.

With Schroeder’s announcement Tuesday, Germany has shown however, that it is willing to take on a much greater military role.

The chancellor said he was prepared to send anti-nuclear, biological and chemical warfare units along with German “Fuchs” sniffer tanks with 800 specialised troops, as requested by Washington. The tanks have the capability to enter and decontaminate affected areas.

In addition to these so-called “ABC” troops, 250 airborne rescue and evacuation personnel, and a field hospital to rescue and treat wounded U.S. soldiers and 500 air transport personnel can be called into combat when required, Schroeder said. He made the remarks Tuesday after a meeting of Germany’s high-level Security Council called to respond to specific U.S. requests made officially on Monday.

Some 1800 naval personnel also will be mobilised to protect shipping in the Gulf and off the Horn of Africa.

Most controversially, however, Schroeder also has agreed to 100 men from Germany’s elite Special Forces to be available for hit- and-run missions.

However, Schroeder would not specify what the troops will be used for, when they would be deployed, and where they will be stationed.

In a press conference Tuesday Schroeder was at pains to stress that German troops would not take part in air strikes and that ground troops would not be sent into Afghanistan, denying that special forces troops amounted to participation in a ground war. “By ground troops we understand it to mean troops who will stay longer term and have a presence on the ground,” said Schroeder.

The distinction is an important one in Germany as there are still some sensitivities towards sending troops on the ground.

The chancellor also refused to specify whether troops would serve in Afghanistan itself, or whether they would be used in other areas including Pakistan and the Central Asian republics. However Citha Maass of the Foundation for Science and Politics said “the use of Special Forces can only be intended for Afghanistan”.

Schroeder still has to clear the decision with the federal parliament, with proposals being tabled as early as Thursday morning. But he said he was confident that it would be accepted by parliament and the public.

Opinion polls now show 65 percent of the population are in favour of German military involvement, although the percentage is far lower in eastern Germany. Three years ago only 19 percent of the population favoured German troop involvement in Kosovo, according to a poll at the time by the weekly ‘Der Spiegel’ Magazine.

Political commentator Dieter Roth said “the public is behind Mr Schroeder’s pledge of unlimited solidarity (with the United States). People are not quite sure what this means but as the implications become clear the chancellor is still likely to keep their support”.

Guido Westerwelle, leader of the liberal Free Democrat Party supported Schroeder, saying there was “no alternative” for Germany.

However Schroeder could face criticism from his own governing coalition, with the Green party, junior partner in the coalition showing only 30 percent of its followers favouring military involvement. Just the confirmation that the United States had issued a list of requests has caused consternation within the Greens.

The party said they did not adhere to “unlimited solidarity” with the United States in its war against terrorism – a slogan used repeatedly by Schroeder since the Sep 11 attacks on New York and Washington. But the party said their position was one of “critical solidarity”.

“Critical solidarity can protect us from adventurism” said Green party leader Fritz Kuhn.

Other members said it was unlikely that “just” 3,900 troops will be sent, seeing the present request from the United States as the thin end of a wedge, in a war that could last a long time.

Schroeder has warned there could be “serious consequences” if the Greens failed to back him in his pledge to support U.S. military action. This is taken to include the collapse of the coalition.

The Chancellor has been preparing the country for a wider military role for several weeks, returning from the United States in Mid-October, saying Germany had entered a new phase in its post- war history, willing and able to use military force abroad “in defence of freedom and human rights”.

And in early October he told the German parliament that the era when German could provide only financial or other secondary support to foreign military mission was “irrevocably gone”.

The country had a “new responsibility in international operations aimed at securing a safe and just world order”, he said.

This has been a reversal of a legacy of WWII that has made it virtually taboo to contemplate deployment of troops to support foreign policy goals. The country was deeply ambivalent about joining peacekeeping missions in the Kosovo war and more recently in Macedonia.

But as political commentators said in Berlin, Tuesday’s decision is a major one involving a theatre of war outside the NATO arena, and an indication that Germany was no longer relegated to a secondary role within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

“Germany is showing itself increasingly prepared to bring in the military element as a component of foreign policy,” said Karsten Voigt, a foreign ministry official.

In a major speech last month Schroeder said his country’s willingness to provide military backing was an important message for Germany’s allies. It was “a new conception of German foreign policy”, he said. “Avoiding every direct risk cannot and must not be the guiding principle of Germany foreign and security policy.”