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12/09/2009

The timing is bad for Germany. Even as the country continues trying to deal with the fallout of the Sept. 4, German-ordered bombing in Kunduz -- which killed dozens, perhaps as many as 150, civilians -- pressure is growing on Berlin to send more troops to Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, Richard Holbrooke, appointed by US president Barack Obama as America's Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, added to it. In interviews with two German dailies, Holbrooke said that additional German soldiers in the war-torn country are "very welcome."

But Holbrooke shied away from demanding a rapid reply to American requests for additional troops. Germany, along with other NATO allies, is waiting until an Afghanistan conference in London at the end of January before it reviews its troop levels in Afghanistan. Holbrooke told the Berliner Zeitung, "I am not one to criticize Germany or other allies just because they don't operate on America's schedule."

'War Will Not Be Won at Conferences'

Holbrooke's comments come just a week after Obama announced that the US would be sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan before beginning to withdraw them in 2011. The US president also indicated that he expects additional soldiers from NATO allies as well. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the trans-Atlantic alliance would send an additional 7,000 troops.

Just where those troops might come from, however, remains unclear. And Holbrooke indicated that he doesn't have high hopes for the January Afghanistan conference. "We are going to London to establish an international consensus as to how we can help the Afghans," he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "But, the war will not be won at conferences... . People commit themselves to things at conferences without knowing how they will accomplish them. The history of Afghanistan is full of nice conferences."

Still, Holbrooke seemed to indicate that the war in Afghanistan is at a turning point. He told the Berliner Zeitung that "in the last eight years, we have shamefully neglected Afghanistan. There weren't enough soldiers, there wasn't enough economic aid, not enough police assistance and not enough coordination among the allies. Now we are going to change that." In the Süddeutsche, he was even clearer: "Essentially, in the ninth year of the war, we are starting over from scratch."

Germany's Abu Ghraib?

Germany as elsewhere has seen a steep drop in public support for the war in Afghanistan recently. Germans have been particularly repelled by the bombing of two tanker trucks near Kunduz on Sept. 4. The trucks, which had been hijacked by the Taliban, were hit by an airstrike despite being stuck in a sandbank in the middle of the Kunduz River at the time of the attack. The strike resulted in the largest loss of life by a German-ordered attack since World War II.

As information has leaked out about the events leading up to the attack and the Berlin government's bumbling response after it, pressure has grown on German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. The incident has already resulted in the resignation of one German minister as well as a leading German army official and a top Defense Ministry deputy.

Holbrooke told the Berliner Zeitung that "Germany must make it clear to the entire Muslim world that Kunduz is as ill-suited to be a metaphor for Germany's role in the world as Abu Ghraib was for the US."

Editor's note: The quotes by Richard Holbrooke used in this story have been translated from German.