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11/27/2009

A deadly airstrike on two tankers in Afghanistan in September has proved to be a political timebomb in Berlin.

On Thursday Germany's top soldier and a deputy defense minister were forced to resign after revelations that the German army command and the Defense Ministry had been sent reports showing that there had been civilian casualties after the German-ordered airstrike. This was contrary to the initial claim by the government that only Taliban fighters had been killed in the attack.

On Friday it was former Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung's turn to fall on his sword. The clamor for his resignation in the light of his disastrous handling of the aftermath of the airstrike had grown too loud. Jung, who had been shifted to the Labor Ministry in the new center-right coalition, had attempted to explain his way out of the political mess on Thursday in a speech to parliament.

By Friday, however, it was clear that his position had become untenable. Jung announced his resignation from the cabinet, saying he was taking "political responsibility" for having misinformed the public.

Most of the German newspapers on Friday had already called for him to resign and many argue that the debacle has further undermined the credibility of Germany's mission in Afghanistan.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Everyone involved should now try a bit of honesty. That applies to the retrospective statements on events, but also on the future justification for why Germany is still involved in Afghanistan after eight years. That will not be made any easier if one does not know if the justifications being presented are credible."

"From the beginning, Germany's war in Afghanistan suffered from several disadvantages and the first was that it was not supposed to be called a 'war.' This meant dressing up the soldiers as reconstruction aid workers, something they were -- but not exclusively. Every dead soldier, every attack and every battle has shaken this image."

"The second problem has always been that this war was not only determined and prolonged out of a sense of foreign policy responsibility, but also because of the forces of domestic politics. (Former Chancellor) Gerhard Schröder linked the first deployment of German soldiers in 2001 to a vote of confidence in his own government. With every extension of the parliamentary mandate the deployment is kept alive ... with the argument that too much has already been contributed. Successes were exaggerated in order to cover up the difficulties. After the Afghanistan conference at the end of January, citizens will likely once again be fed the argument that more has to be done so that less can be done sooner. For those being addressed to believe this, there needs to be trust. That is exactly what has now been destroyed."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"Franz Josef Jung's actions after Sept. 4 were unfortunate and at the very least negligent. After a German colonel called in an airstrike on two tankers, the minister was premature in repeatedly saying that only Taliban had been hit."

"According to the recent revelations, he should not have done so. …. It is not, however, clear if Jung lied then or later. Yet in the light of the new revelations, his comments were irresponsible."

"The Bundeswehr is an apparatus that is highly unwieldy when it comes to communications. It takes some time for information to get from the bottom to the top. The capital political mistake was, however, in the ministry. It should have realized immediately that this was a dangerous business. If everything is not done in such a case to dispell any doubts as quickly as possible or to admit to any mistakes, then this damages the German mission in Afghanistan. And it loses even more support at home."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The job of defense minister has remarkable similarities to that of a bomb disposal expert. This doesn't seem to have been clear to the former Defense Minister Jung and his advisers. That is the only thing that can explain the disastrous information management following the airstrike of Sept. 4 in Afghanistan. The way the information traveled through the ministry and then via the ministry to the public was a catastrophe. It should have been clear to the ministry that every grenade and bomb that goes off in Afghanistan contains a political explosive that can also hit Berlin."

"Is the hotly debated question of whether Jung knew a day earlier or later that the airstrike had also killed civilians really the most important thing that comes to mind when German politicians think of Afghanistan? The energy that has been put into an admittedly terrible crisis management would be better used if it was applied to the discussion about how to bring the deployment in Afghanistan to an end. The troops fighting there have already been unsettled by the uncertain situation back home. Yet, who is bothering with strategy here, when it is much easier to focus on scandals?"

The business daily Handelsblatt writes:

"The deliberate manipulation of information reveals the chaos and intrigue, the disinformation and colossal distrust, that reigned in the ministery under Jung. Much of this was the fault of Jung. He was out of his depth. He never got a handle on his ministry."

"By his own admission he didn't even read the most important papers, such as the military report that has now come to light. The unease that the Kunduz affair caused in Berlin, Brussels, London and Washington, revealed with embarrassing certainty how unqualified Jung was."

"His successor in the Defense Ministry would be well advised to consider releasing his own version of the events for clarity. It would be nice if this were not played out in the tabloid press."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"The mission in Afghanistan has long been accompanied by silence, trickery and hemming and hawing from the politicians responsible. Its legitimacy has long been in question."

"It is a major task for the new defense minister to re-establish legitimacy. Right at the beginning, in 2001, the political aims of the military mission had been to eliminate al-Qaida and their protectors the Taliban. That was plausible in the light of the terror attacks in New York and Washington. Soon, however, the building up of democracy, the freeing of women from the burqa, the development of schools and the fight against the drug industry were added as further reasons for the Bundeswehr to fight in Afghanistan. No one speaks about these any more. NATO is fighting to make sure that there is no threat to international security, that the country cannot serve as a haven for terrorists -- these were the reasons (Defense Minister) Guttenberg gave for extending the mandate yesterday."

"Shouldn't the aim of such an intensive deployment, one with so many victims, be about more than that? For example, the protection of the human rights of the citizens of such an oppressed country? That would be at least a justification worthy of discussion."

"People like Franz Josef Jung had tried to prevent a critical and open debate about the looming military and political failure in Afghanistan. That should now be over."