The Afghanistan Conference: Is There a Way Out of the 'Graveyard of Empires'?

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Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle: When the former government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer went to war against the Serbs a decade ago, they sought to justify their decision by looking to history. Kosovo, they worried, could become a modern-day Auschwitz -- the comparison seems more absurd today than it did then.

The current government has chosen the other extreme when talking about the "war-like conditions" in Afghanistan. They have preferred understatement, indecision, silence and confusion. Guttenberg, head of the Defense Ministry for just three months, has been more open about the true nature of the German engagement in Afghanistan than his predecessor. But he has still shied away from absolute transparency. Recently, as part of Germany's ongoing adjustment of its Afghanistan strategy, he called for German soldiers to show a greater presence in the villages and on the streets of northern Afghanistan, where they are based. Such a strategy clearly involves greater danger for German troops, and one would have thought that Guttenberg might have said something to that effect. But he chose not to.

Foreign Minister Westerwelle, for his part, has developed a fondness for fairy tales. When he speaks of the new fund designed to moderate Taliban away from extremism, it sounds as though he is talking about programs to reform neo-Nazis and turn them state's evidence. On Thursday, Germany will pledge €50 million ($70.36 million) to the program.

German soldiers have been stationed in Afghanistan for more than eight years. Not once, however, has a German general come up with a strategy proposal that was deemed worthy of debate by the cabinet. Berlin doesn't even have a body charged with developing political and military strategies. Instead, Germany just waits for the Americans to act before falling into line. It's a rather weak legacy for a mid-sized power like Germany.

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt: He has often said that Germany has no interests in either Kosovo or Afghanistan. His reasoning has to do with Germany's 20th century history and his resulting conviction that Berlin should tread lightly on the world stage. But, now that we're there, the Social Democratic statesman argues that we should stay -- out of loyalty to the NATO alliance. His party, no doubt, was hoping for a different verdict, but for Schmidt, the country comes before the party.

On to London : One can view the Thursday conference in London in two ways. The first: America has decided what to do and now it is up to the rest of the world to follow. Such a viewpoint would make the London conference superfluous. The other way of looking at it: The West is attempting to create a collective approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan. And that certainly justifies a conference.

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• Part 1: Is There a Way Out of the 'Graveyard of Empires'?
• Part 2: The American View -- Trust in the Generals, Doubts about Karzai
• Part 3: Afghanistan's Position - Negotiate with the Taliban, Don't Forget Pakistan
• Part 4: Germany's Strategy - Falling in Line with the Americans