AMID DWINDLING public support, Germany’s military mission in Afghanistan has come under attack from a leading Bundeswehr general, who says soldiers lack vital training and crucial equipment.
The remarks by Reinhold Robbe, outgoing armed forces commissioner, come after a bloody week for the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan. On Friday, Taliban fighters killed three German soldiers and injured eight in an ambush, bringing to 39 the number of German casualties there since 2002. Meanwhile, in a separate incident hours later, German soldiers killed six Afghan soldiers near Kunduz after mistaking them for Taliban insurgents.
Berlin has expressed its regret for the deaths but said it remains committed to its nine-year mission in Afghanistan.
“Our soldiers aren’t there for nothing,” said defence minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, before adding that the situation in Afghanistan was “warlike”. Until recently, Berlin has avoided using the word war to describe the Bundeswehr’s 4,500-soldier-strong mission to Afghanistan.
But the deaths and debate over soldier equipment have lead to the first cracks in Berlin’s unified line on Afghanistan.
“We pulled the wool over our own eyes – and I don’t just mean politicians but our entire society,” said Christian Schmidt, a state secretary for defence in Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU). “We’re not just digging wells, we are involved in warlike, violent combat in Afghanistan – with deaths.”
In the light of the latest casualties, leading German generals have urged extra training and further spending to prevent further deaths. “Soldiers have told me that there are deficits in training,” said Mr Robbe.
His remarks have unleashed an avalanche of frustration over the Afghanistan mission from various quarters.
Military experts have complained that the Bundeswehr is using tanks unsuitable for use in Afghanistan and that the necessary equipment requested by the Bundeswehr is “always provided too late, inconsequentially and half-heartedly”. Others say a shortage of German helicopters leaves them dependent on American colleagues for cover.
German newspapers are filled with complaints from unnamed soldiers that they have too little training before their deployment.
The defence ministry dismissed such claims yesterday, saying it “couldn’t identify a connection between the deaths and possible training shortcomings”.
That prompted a swift contradiction from Mr Robbe, and from the main soldier representative organisations. “This doesn’t just shock me, but it angers me, too,” said Mr Robbe. “I’ve decried training deficits for years but I feel like I’m crying in the wilderness.”
The three German soldiers killed last Friday during a mine-clearing mission died when their patrol was ambushed by up to 80 Taliban insurgents.