War on Terror

The military has a sense for symbolics: That is why the occasionally dirty military war against international terrorism has been signed off under the harmless name of Operation Enduring Freedom. Five years after the begin of this robust military action, however, its success is anything but obvious. Afghanistan is a case in point: even though the restrengthened Taliban are threatening freedom there, the Enduring Freedom units have partially passed the fight against terror onto the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was actually meant to secure the rebuilding of the country.

The German Bundeswehr has been part of Operation Enduring Freedom from the very beginning -- in Afghanistan with special forces, and in the Horn of Africa as part of maritime monitoring operations. Not much is known about the success in the Horn of Africa, but there are indications that this not very robust mission is more symbolical rather than a great strike against international terrorism.

Despite these limitations, the German government did good to extend German participation in the multinational operation -- if for no other reason than for the sake of solidarity, which is important in an alliance. At the same time, however, German parliamentarians failed to take stock of the military reaction to Sept. 11. What is it that soldiers can actually achieve in the fight against terrorism and what not? Five years later, we should have some answers.

The lack of this type of debate also has to do with Germany's lack of consistence. Despite all the open critique of a failed US policy, German troops have also been part of an anti-terror war whose victims include not only the Taliban but also innocent civilians. That was never a secret, but it is not exactly something that politicians wanted to say to the people. And the people didn't exactly want to know it either. They preferred to stick with the picture of a smiling aid worker in uniform and ranted openly about the allies' methods.

But the case of Murat Kurnaz shattered that picture. The German-born Turk from Bremen feels that he has been abused by members of the German elite commandos (KSK). Bundeswehr soldiers allegedly pulled him by his hair and slammed his head into the ground. Opposition parties in Germany used that as a reason to criticize sharply the minister of defense, because Franz-Josef Jung and his predecessors were informing the parliament only vaguely about the Enduing Freedom activities in Afghanistan. The parliament had to speculate about injuries and casualties, supposedly not to endanger the secret anti-terror operations. The defense minister has now pledged that that should be different in the future.

So far, it's been only words, but the long overdue change of course must now be implemented in deed. Special forces will in the future carry the main load of anti-terror operations, but this work of the secretive elite troops must be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Members of the parliament could then allow themselves to judge how successful Germany's participation in the war on terror really is.