And the German government is facing a "no-confidence" vote because of Green Party opposition to the bombing of Afghanistan.
I guess there will be a 75% majority in favor of military support for the USA when the German parliament will vote on Thursday.
Here is a more detailed view of the German stance:
telepolis.de
Off to War
David Hudson - November 12, 2001
Weekly Review: Germany prepares to leap into Operation Enduring Freedom with 3900 troops
Just six weeks ago, speculation was running rampant that Germany's governing coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens would be another casualty of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington (see [1]Red and Green All Over?). A few weeks had passed and the US hadn't done anything yet. But suppose it called on NATO -- and thus, Germany, too -- to join whatever military reprisal it was cooking up? Would the Greens play along, and if not, then what? When the bombing began in Afghanistan on October 7, though, it looked as if the US and the UK were going it alone. The "red-green" coalition was safe. Now, that reprieve is over.
Last Tuesday, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announced that the US had requested a total of 3900 soldiers to serve in five specific areas: 800 to operate Germany's Fuchs (Fox) tank-like vehicles for the detection of atomic, biological or chemical (ABC) weapons on the battlefield; 250 to evacuate the wounded; 100 "special forces"; 500 for air transport; 1800 on the seas to protect ships with dangerous loads.
It was a request, Schröder said, he intended to grant. You couldn't just go around promising "unlimited solidarity" for weeks on end, as he'd been doing, and then leave America in the lurch. It's a rather detailed list, one evidently designed to be as palatable as possible to the pacifists in the government, which would be a considerable number of Social Democrats and perhaps even a majority of Greens. Note that German soldiers aren't being called on to participate in the bombing or to rush in to take a direct part in any imminent ground war. Note, too, that the US hasn't called on Germany via NATO. France and Italy are sending in troops as well, but the US is building its "international coalition" on a nation-by-nation basis.
The constitution drawn up by the Federal Republic of Germany in the years following the end of World War II stipulates that the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, must give its thumbs up before the country's armed forces can be sent abroad. With no one really anxious to see German troops on the march again, it took a while before the matter was even brought up. Throughout the Cold War, the primary job of both Germanys was to sit tight, make no waves and quietly accept the protection of their respective superpowers.
The Wall fell, peace broke out all over, but as these things so go, war was hot on its heels. In August 1990, two months before the unification of Germany's two halves, 500 soldiers were on their way to the Persian Gulf as part of NATO's contribution to the beefing up of Bush Senior's international coalition facing down Saddam Hussein. German soldiers hung around after the Gulf War, too, to clear mines and help oversee the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Years before they were finished there, though, Yugoslavia started breaking up. In conjunction with Ifor, Sfor, Kfor or NATO, a few hundred soldiers here, a few hundred soldiers there were sent in to help put out the various fires. Schröder's government was elected in late 1998 to replace Helmut Kohl's during a bit of lull, but just half a year later, the most dramatic of these fires flamed up: Kosovo.
Since then, Schröder and Green party leader and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer have spent much of their time in office convincing their own parties that each of these circumstances is uniquely urgent. Milosevic had to be stopped, but since we're in the neighborhood, we can't let the situation in Macedonia get out of hand, either. 600 German troops are there even now.
Those are the arguments spoken out loud in the Bundestag. The unspoken subtext of the Schröder-Fischer project is significantly different, however: a lot of water has gone under the bridge since the two world wars of the 20th century. We're a big country now, the biggest on the continent, the economic engine of Europe, the world's third-largest economy. We can't shirk our responsibilities.
It's this subtext that Oskar Lafontaine, Schröder's former finance minister, was referring to when he accused the government of Wichtigtuerei -- that is, it's getting too big for its britches. "I'm critical of all this haughty talk of a new military role for Germany in the world," he told the newsweekly Stern.
As for the Greens, their problems lie more with any role at all in this particular war, never mind all the grandstanding. Even before last week, Green leaders were calling for a pause in the bombing so that humanitarian aide can reach needy Afghans before winter sets in. 7.5 million face [2]starvation, civilian casualties were getting out of hand and, at least before the taking of Mazar-i-Sharif, it all appeared to be for nought.
And Schröder wants to leap in? As Goedart Palm writes in Telepolis, "Even taking Kosovo into consideration, this military mission marks a [3]historical caesura in what has up to now been the Bundeswehr's relatively leisurely task of peacekeeping ... Schröder won't be able to jump off this hellish ride on the most dangerous roller coaster in German post-war history."
On the day after Schröder's announcement, Harold Neuber found the [4]conservative opposition a lot more comfortable with it than the chancellor's own governing party and partner. But while Christian Democratic Union leader Angela Merkel echoed Margaret Thatcher's "no alternative" hard line, it was Kohl's former defense minister, Volker Rühe, interestingly enough, who was the only skeptical voice of the bunch.
Then came the strangest wrinkle in Schröder's campaign. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed he hadn't drawn up this 5-point request at all. To be fair, [5]what he said was, "We asked for broad support; we asked people to come forward with what they thought would be appropriate and what they felt was comfortable for them, as opposed to our asking for certain specific things, which we tend not to do." National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice had to save the day by announcing that Germany was offering "nothing more, nothing less" than what the US wanted.
But the episode only strengthened the impression that Schröder wanted the Bundeswehr in on Operation Enduring Freedom even more than the US did. Which sounds less like reluctantly facing up to responsibilities and more like Wichtigtuerei.
So what will happen? Well, the soldiers are going. With the opposition behind the motion, a parliamentary majority is assured in the coming week. What's far less assured is a majority of "red-green" parliamentarians. Fully one third of the Greens are expected to vote No. Over the weekend, Schröder let it be known that he wouldn't hold it against them. After all, he only has to live with them for ten more months, that is, until the national elections next September.
Links
[1] heise.de
[2] alternet.org
[3] heise.de
[4] heise.de
[5] faz.com{B1311FCC-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88}&doc={F17F0AFD-16F2-4807-844C-9F0F24FEDF54} |
