[anglian]

Germans also concede that Nato troops from Britain, America, Canada and Holland put themselves at much greater risk. But Germany remains reluctant to send its troops down south to back up Nato allies fighting the Taleban.

[anglian]

"We focus our work in the north and we do a good job in the north," General Volker Barth, commander of German troops in Afghanistan, told me.

"I feel for everybody who loses their life, whether a soldier or civilian, in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world. But we will carry on with our job here in the north as we want to avoid exactly what is happening in the south."One of the German soldiers I met in Afghanistan summed up his country's position with a Prussian proverb: you can win a battle with guns, he told me, but you cannot conquer a country by force - for that you need to win hearts and minds.

That is Germany's mission - and one it is determined to see to the end.

German army on Afghan charm offensive http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1754980/posts