Germany failing to fight Taliban, US claims

Telegraph ^ | 02/02/08 | David Blair and Harry de Quetteville

[kinoxi]

Huff and puff and wait this WAR out. Why should they fight?

[SatinDoll]

I think it is time to pull our military out of Germany.

[tpanther]

Easy fix...threaten to move Ramstein to Poland again. See what happens then....hell they’d raise a panzer division overnight!

[elhombrelibre]

Germany seems to be in NATO for all of the benefits without any of the downside. This failure by the German government, along with their trade and pussy-footing about Iran’s nuclear program, reminds me of the bitter days when they helped give Saddam the delusion that the world would stop the US from ending his dictatorship. Germany is not behaving like a partner in a military alliance, which obviously includes taking risks.

[kinoxi]

We are there because they cannot do what needs to be done.

[expatguy]

This article seems to insinuate that Americans are themselves fighting Islamic totalitarianism. When the reality is that Americans are doing all they possibly can do to accommodate and appease these reprobates.

Sadly the majority if not all Americans are so blinded by political correctness that they are unable to identify the enemy.

The war is being lost - not won

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[Eagles6]

All this at a time when the dem presidential candidates are raising the ante on who can withdraw Troops from Iraq the quickest. Can Afghanistan be far behind?

Just wait us out. Hate to be in Kabul when that last heli leaves from the embassy roof.

Sad thing is that picture from Vietnam still gives the clintons and their ilk goosebumps of the evil kind. Now we are about to let them do it all over again.

[ozzymandus]

Jeeze, the last time the German Army fought anybody, the US got all upset. Now they’re NOT fighting, and the US is all upset.

[stefan10]

And who should care about that?

The remaining US troops are in germany because of logistic reasons and because the infrastructure is there. But no doubt if you want you can start to build all that in a different european country but then you have the problem that after five years or even less you might have to travel to another country and so on

I don´t think that this is a responsible way to handle US taxpayers money. But i can assure you beside some small towns in the middle of nowhere in germany nobody would care nowadays if the US troops leave or change his mind. That´s the sad reality.

The simple and sad fact is that a vast majority of people are against the war in Afghanistan and there is not even a majority within our parliament for more troops or going to the south. There is simply not a single party in my country that would support such a step not even my conservative party because they all fear the voters hard punishment for that step.

[lowbuck]

True to a certain extent. I live here and believe some Germans what to do more but politically it is almost impossible. The citizens have been raised to believe that US and power projection is BAD. Talk and compromise is GOOD. Most of them think Third World conditions is when the toilet paper is rough or has run out!

If you recall back in the summer, some of the terrorist in Germany were ordered to “attack something NOW”. Why? I think we had spooked all the bad guys out of their “training camps” and into Tora Bora where we proceeded to kick collective ass. Now if they could get the Germans who to an extent blocked an escape route to leave they could run. They knew that an attack, any attack, would have the Germans up in arms to get out now.

I think the German government is doing much more to help in the WOT, but, they must do it on the QT. JMHO

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Too busy fighting homeschoolers and Christians, can’t be bothered to fight Taliban or Muslims.

[TigerLikesRooster]

If Hitlery takes power, she will stop fighting Al Qaeda and start fighting Christian fundamentalists again. She will scour the whole country to find anybody who looks like Eric Rudolph or Tim McVeigh. But not jet-flying terrorists from Mideast.

[Niuhuru]

It’s a pity we can’t get the Chinese to help us out. I think they would leap at the chance to get some experience for their army.

[SatinDoll]

For too long we’ve shouldered everybody else’s problems. I see no reason to build anywhere else in Europe.

As a veteran I firmly believe in a strong military, but Germany was defeated in 1945 and Eastern Europe has nations that have joined NATO. It is time that they shift for themselves and Europe won’t do that as long as we are there propping them up militarily. Yes, I said propping them up - they haven’t had to come to grips with their own defense.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, eastern Africa, and northern South America should be our central concerns at this time. Subverting and deflecting the growing influence of Arab Islamists, not only terrorism but particularly the money coming out of Saudi Arabia to fund the spread of Wahhabism, ought to be our main concern.

When I was in the Navy during the early 80’s, the goal was to be the greatest Naval power on earth. By the early 90’s we had achieved that goal. Now we need to assert that power and maintain it. That means we must stop squandering money on areas of the world that are functioning democracies.

[PoliticsAndSausages]

Yes, that would actually be a great thing - money aside, I really don’t want foreign military bases in Germany. And maybe we would invest more into the military then...aah, what a nice thought. Germany, free of foreign military and building up their forces...maybe some nukes...

[PoliticsAndSausages]

Everything in apurely european context of course :)

[PoliticsAndSausages]

NATO context. DAMN IT! :)

[SatinDoll]

Ah! Now yer talkin’.

[endthematrix]

No doubt the Chicoms are fighting the WoT. They have an western front dealing with the Islamists. The Chicaoms were criticized for their harshness to terrorists by Amnesty International. So they must be doing some good.