• English Site
• > Germany
• > Afghanistan

Former Defense Minister on Afghanistan

German Mission Is a 'Disaster'

Germany's involvement in Afghanistan is a delicate issue. In a SPIEGEL interview, former German Defense Minister Volker Rühe speaks in bold terms about how politicians in Berlin have failed and why Germany needs to use all of its military might in the country.

SPIEGEL: Current German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung considers the deployment of German soldiers in Afghanistan a success. Do you agree with him?

Volker Rühe: This mission is a disaster -- for NATO, for Germany and for the soldiers dying in the Hindu Kush. If Defense Minister Jung and Peter Struck, the parliamentary leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), are really hoping that we will stay in Afghanistan for 10 more years, then we are really in for a nightmare.

SPIEGEL: What would you recommend?

Rühe: Over the next two years, we should engage ourselves with all our might, and then we should initiate a withdrawal. The Americans will do exactly the same thing because Obama wants to get re-elected. But in Germany there has not been a serious debate about this once during the election campaign.

SPIEGEL: Do you think Afghanistan is an appropriate campaign issue?

Rühe: Why else would we have election campaigns? The parties should finally express their opinions about Afghanistan in precise terms -- but they all lack the courage to do so. Under these circumstances, voters are forced to choose between two absurd extremes: between parties in the ruling government coalition, which want to stay in Afghanistan for another 10 years, and the Left Party, which would be happiest if we were out of there in 10 days. But no one is working on developing a feasible strategy. It's woeful.

SPIEGEL: But there is a strategy -- namely, that NATO will withdraw once the Afghans are in a position to look after their own security.

Rühe: If we say that we are going to stay for another 10 years, the Afghans are not going to be in any particular rush to stand up on their own two feet.

SPIEGEL: We've already been in Kosovo for 10 years, too.

Rühe: In the Balkans, the real issue is democracy in Europe. But that kind of nation-building is not going to work in Afghanistan. If you walk up to someone in the Hindu Kush and explain to them that you are trying to introduce democracy in Afghanistan, they will laugh themselves silly.

SPIEGEL: So do you want to abandon Afghanistan?

Rühe: No, but Afghanistan is not the center of the universe. It is not in the interest of Germany or NATO to get themselves tied down there for another 10 years. The alliance needs to once again focus itself on tasks in the European field of activity, such as the Middle East.

SPIEGEL: But as your successor, Peter Struck, stated in 2002, when Germany sends troops to fight in Afghanistan, Germany's security "is being defended in the Hindu Kush."

Rühe: That might have been the case in 2002. But today this open-ended mission is definitely not in our interest.

SPIEGEL: What does it mean when you say that we should get involved in Afghanistan for two years "with all our might"?

Rühe: We should think about improving our equipment. For example, we shouldn't abstain from using certain weapons just because they might look too war-like. But, more than anything, we need to assume more responsibility. Whenever the French or the British fall into danger, we need to be the ones to help them out, even if it's in the hard-fought southern part of the country. Loyalty to the alliance demands it.

SPIEGEL: And what about civil reconstruction activities?

Rühe: We need to carry on with them. But remember, we are involved in a military conflict. Our soldiers are not armed development workers.