What 11th_VA is saying is what I'm reading here in Germany, too.
The bottom line looks to be that Italy and Norway won't do anything unless NATO has upper command of the operation, while some countries feel that NATO, because of it's action against muslims in Afghanistan, would be bad PR for the muslim rebels in Libya.
Reading between the lines, it looks like there is a push to bring Qatar and the UAE into the forefront, but the UAE is dragging its heels. Obama has said that the US is going to drop it's command role after the initial strikes to take down Libya AA capacity and no one seems to know who will fill the void.
The whole cluster...k can becomes apparent when you read that France calls the operation "Harmattan". the British call it "Ellamy" and the US call it "Odyssey Dawn".
I think that Germany is pulling ships from the Mediterranean because it now appears that NATO ships will be used to enforce a blockade of Libya. IOW mission creep.
Merkel has sufferred some very embarrasing scandals such as her heir apparent and defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (AKA zu Googleberg) having been caught out as amateurishly plagiarizing his doctor thesis and a vicious round of fingerpointing between her government and automakers after the new introduction of E10 biofuel was shown to damage or not run in some older cars.
She has a very big state election coming up Sunday and just doesn't need the risk of another display of ineptitude right now.
These are just my thoughts on the matter.
I have to refine this comment.
Although that was the title of the article I read it looks like Germany is pulling it's ships out from under NATO command rather than from the Med.
The Germans don't want to commit forces to a military enforcement of a weapons embargo.
It hasn't been determined if the ships will leave the Med.
They were there for anti-terrorism AWACS duty.