German Minister of Defence Says Soldiers Perceive Operation in Afghanistan as a War
09:07 GMT, November 4, 2009 defpro.com | In a speech held at the occasion of his assumption of office, German Defence Minister Dr. Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg announced that one of the key points of his work will consist of better communicating to the public the issues of the operation in Afghanistan than it has been done before. “There is no question that in some parts of Afghanistan there are war-like conditions”, the 37-years old Minister recently said in an interview.
“At least in the perception not only of our soldiers the Taliban lead a war against the soldiers of the international community”, zu Guttenberg added. The deployed troops do not have an understanding for “necessary legal, academic of semantic subtleties”, he emphasised (see note).
At the same time he pointed out that international law is very clear on the fact that a war can only be lead between two states. This is also the position of the Federal Government. However, on the other hand, the Minister said that he understands each soldier who says that there is war in Afghanistan, no matter if he is attacked, wounded or killed by a foreign armed force of by radical Islamic Taliban.
Zu Guttenberg pointed out that the operation for many years has been a combat operation and that the soldiers involved in this operation are ready to take great risks. “Therefore, they have a right for their dangerous duty to be recognised in an adequate way by society”, he wrote in his first order of the day to the soldiers and in the same order made clear that the Bundeswehr is confronted with great challenges, particularly in its operations abroad.
(This is an unofficial translation of a press release of the German Ministry of Defence by defpro.com/nvk)
[N.B.: There has been a controversial discussion during the past month whether or not Germany is involved in a war in Afghanistan. Many deployed soldiers as well as the Association of the Bundeswehr criticised the past administration for not speaking out clearly about the nature of the operation in Afghanistan and thereby not recognising their true risks and challenges. For more information on this, please read the related articles linked at the bottom of this news.]
OpEd: Political Hypocrisy in a Matter of Facts and Nomenclature – Thoughts on the nature of Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/341/
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