Pat Dollard

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In other words – we quit. Go yourself. Let the terrorists win. We only care about ourselves.

November 9, 2008
DW-World DE

Mingled with Germany’s welcome for Barack Obama, warnings have been issued over the past couple of days to the next US administration: Do not request more German troops to fight in Afghanistan.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had agreed with the president-elect in a telephone conversation Thursday that their two nations must act in union to solve the world’s problems. “Germany must, should and will take on responsibility,” she said.

But in remarks to supporters a day later, the limits to German willingness were clear.

Germany has not forgotten an Obama speech in Berlin in June during which he called on the Germans to take on more of the fighting burden in Afghanistan, where German soldiers have rarely fought the Taliban.

Merkel told the youth section of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) that Berlin would not accede to any request from the next US administration to send troops to southern Afghanistan, the scene of most fighting.

“Wherever Germany commits itself, a wholeness of military and civilian assistance should be visible,” she said. She would be able to tell Obama that “just as well” as she had said it to President George W. Bush.

German forces, the third-biggest component in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), are based in safer northern Afghanistan. Other armies have borne the brunt of the fighting in the south.

Merkel may gain her chance to tell Obama fairly soon when she attends a G20 summit in Washington at the end of this week. World leaders hope to see Obama during their stay.

Enthusiasm for Obama has been huge in Berlin most of this year: that helped ensure a crowd of 200,000 heard his speech in a city park on July 24.