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The World from Berlin

Success or Failure in Afghanistan Will Depend on Americans

US President Barack Obama unveiled his new Afghanistan strategy on Friday, one week before a major NATO summit. He said the top goal was to destroy al-Qaida and announced a further 4,000 US troops would go to Afghanistan. German commentators say Washington is unlikely to get its European allies to commit to sending more soldiers.

On Friday, United States President Barack Obama announced his new strategy for Afghanistan, where the eight-year war against the Taliban and al-Qaida has proven to be a failure in many respects for Western powers in the NATO alliance. In a much anticipated move, he ordered 4,000 more miltary troops into the war zone to train the local Afghan army.

In a speech Obama said the situation in Afghanistan was "increasingly perilous" and that the US must "disrupt, defeat and dismantle" the al-Qaida terrorist organization and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaida is actively planning attacks on the US homeland from its safe-haven in Pakistan," he said.

The president said that if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaida to go unchallenged, "that country will be a base for terrorists who want to kill us."

Obama has already announced his plan to send 17,000 additional combat troops to Afghanistan to try to turn things around, bringing the total number of US soldiers in the Hinda Kush to 55,000 by year's end. In addition, Washington wants to send hundreds of civilian reconstruction workers.

When the US implemented its successful "surge" strategy in Iraq, it also set benchmarks for progress for the government in Baghdad and forced it to take greater responsibility in fighting the insurgency. Obama is expected to demand the same of the governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaida activity, as part of his broad strategy for bringing stability to the region. It is also thought that Obama will put his foot down and order Kabul to do more to stamp out corruption and drug trafficking and to share power with the country's regions.

A report in the Washington Post claims that Obama plans to increase spending on the US efforts in Afghanistan by 60 percent. In addition, Obama reportedly wants to triple to €1.5 billion the annual amount Washington pays to support Pakistan's fight against the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies.

With just a week to go before a NATO summit is set to take place in Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany, Obama said: "From our partners and NATO allies, we seek not simply troops, but rather clearly defined capabilities: supporting the Afghan elections, training Afghan Security Forces, and a greater civilian commitment to the Afghan people."

European Union countries said on Friday they were ready to step up their presence in Afghanistan to complement the new US plan. While there were no pledges of extra troops at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech Republic, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the bloc could announce further aid to the impoverished country at an international conference in The Hague next Tuesday.

"(The new US strategy) is a lot closer to the European perception of what our presence is," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after the EU talks. He said that Washington was counting on Europe "to train Afghan security forces as quickly and effectively as possible."

In the run-up to next week's NATO summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech on Thursday in which she offered support for Obama's plan and described the war in Afghanistan as the "most important contemporary test" of the 26-state NATO alliance. At the same time, she said Germany had no plans to send any additional troops to the country. The relatively small number of additional civilian helpers Berlin plans to dispatch to the country has come in for some criticism.

On Germany's editorial pages on Friday, commentators are scathing of the country's contribution.

The financial daily Handelsblatt writes:

"Every member of NATO wants a success in Afghanistan But it is the US that has had to handle most of the military work. That will be the conclusion at next week's NATO summit after the niceties have been filtered out of the closing statement. German Chancellor Merkel made that very clear for Germany on Thursday. Germany will not increase its number of troops in Afghanistan. Instead it wants to intensify its civilian reconstruction efforts. But that can't be truly successful without the security that only the military can provide."

"If Obama had any illusions whatsoever when he took office about whether his partners would abandon their increasing reserve on the issue of Afghanistan, then those have been buried by now. Of course, the emissaries he sent to the region and to his partners have told him that by now. Germany may be willing to keep its current 3,400 troops in the country, but other countries are firmly holding to their plans to withdraw. Holland will pull out 1,700 troops by 2010, and a year later Canada's 2,800-soldier contingent will return home. The success or failure on the main front in the battle against radical Islam will be determined by the US's engagement there."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Germany can 'really stand by' what it has achieved in Afghanistan since December 2001 -- and with that remark, Chancellor Merkel was right. It was also right to accentuate this point in the run up to the NATO summit. The fact that NATO's most important mission is in the Hindu Kush is, after all, due to a German initiative. And because Germany was the first to send a reconstruction team to the region, it gave them the chance to select the comparatively peaceful north of the country. There the German forces, albeit amid unnecessary debate, were able to fulfil the task set before them."

"Now they are boosting the size of the team, they are sending more trainers for the Afghan army, and more troops in time for the election. But they are always being deployed in the north. Sending troops to other parts of the country, places where there is fighting, will become difficult to avoid in the long term. And experience shows: Taking the initiative yourself early is preferable to being forced into something late in the day."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"So now the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has started a revolution. She wants the Western military alliance NATO to work much more closely with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. 'That sounds simple, but is comparatively revolutionary,' she said, as if to tell all those present in the parliament the reach of her comments."

"In reality, though, the reach is not so wide. NATO, of course, understands that, in places like Afghanistan, it can only play a small part in any solution and that the rebuilding of civil society is the most important priority."

"It is a platitude which fails to gain extra meaning through repetition in parliament. Merkel's suggestion would only be revolutionary if it were followed by action. But in that respect, Merkel keeps quiet. The fact there are German forces in Afghanistan speaks for itself, according to the chancellor -- and that was all she had to say. There was no mention of Germany sending more police trainers to Afghanistan than those already planned. In total 120 are due to be sent, along with 45 military police. But that's a joke. What is needed are hundreds of civil trainers."

"But that would leave the chancellor in a difficult conflict with the German states, which would be in charge of committing police. Angela Merkel sidestepped this conflict by announcing a revolution -- and then taking a well-trodden path. That is nothing more than political window dressing."

SPIEGEL ONLINE staff, 2:30 p.m. CET