More soldiers?
December 9, 2009
The US would like Germany to deploy more troops to Afghanistan, according to senior US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, speaking to German newspapers on Wednesday.
"More German soldiers are certainly very welcome," Holbrooke, US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, told the Berliner Zeitung. One week ago, President Obama announced the US would send an additional 30,000 troops to the war-torn country.
Germany has the third largest troop presence in Afghanistan - with a total 4,400 soldiers on the ground - after the US and Britain. Holbrooke said that international cooperation there since initial deployment in 2001 had been disorganized.
"The issue of responsibilities was difficult. The British were to have dealt with drugs, the Germans with training and the Italians with the justice system," Holbrooke told Germany's daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
"The whole thing was uncoordinated and did not get us very far. The upshot is that in the ninth year of the war we are starting from scratch."
Holbrooke added that the top priority would be training the Afghan security forces, which will include lessons in reading and writing.
A high illiteracy rate is among Afghanistan's biggest challenges, along with a flourishing drug trade and corruption.
German skepticism
The German government says it intends to wait until after the International Afghanistan Conference in London at the end of January, to make a decision regarding its future involvement in the country.
However, some politicians have already made clear their opposition to any troop increase. Hans-Peter Uhl of the conservative CSU party wrote in a position paper that after eight years it is "inappropriate to be discussing more or fewer troops" rather what's needed is "a review of our objectives and a strategy to achieve them."
Similarly, leader of the Green Party, Claudia Roth, wrote: "I'm against it. We do not need more soldiers; we need a civil offense - the building of the police force, the justice system, and the economy."
Last week, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also called requests for a troop increase "inappropriate", but said Germany would still be willing to supply aid.
vj/dpa/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Trinity Hartman