German General Issues Scathing Criticism of Berlin's Afghanistan Efforts

German General Issues Scathing Criticism of Berlin's Afghanistan Efforts

Peter Cassata | December 01, 2008

General Hans-Christoph Ammon, the head of the German army's elite special commando unit KSK, called Germany's contributions to the NATO mission in Afghanistan a "miserable failure" while speaking to the German press agency DPA. IHT:

Breaking with a military tradition of keeping silent about policy, a top German general has branded his country's efforts in Afghanistan a failure, singling out its poor record in training the Afghan police and allocating development aid.

Germany was responsible for training the Afghan police, but the German Interior Ministry, led by the conservative Wolfgang Schäuble, has come under repeated criticism from the United States and other NATO allies for providing too few experts and inappropriate training.

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The government had provided a mere €12 ($15.2) million for training the Afghan Army and police while the United States has already given more than $1 billion, he said. "At that rate, it would take 82 years to have a properly trained police force," he said. More damaging for Germany's reputation, Ammon said, was that its police-training mission was considered such a 'disaster' that the United States and EU had taken over responsibility.

Furthermore, the rare nature of Ammon's comments seems to have given gravity to his message:

The Defense Ministry said Ammon was expressing his personal views. Even so, because such views are rare, security experts said they showed the level of frustration building among senior military officers over German reluctance to provide adequate financing for Afghan mission or even explain to the public why Germany has 4,500 soldiers there.

Neither Chancellor Angela Merkel nor her conservative defense minister, Franz-Josef Jung, have been willing to debate the issue publicly. For the first time since German soldiers were sent to Afghanistan six years ago, Jung referred in November to the "Gefallene," or fallen soldiers, who had died there.

Merkel is facing increasing pressure both from her Christian Democratic Union party as well as from outside critics to more fully address the Afghanistan issue and Germany's role there. This pressure will likely grow next year, as Obama is expected to push Europe for greater troop contributions to Afghanistan upon taking office.