und in sachen afghanistan bekleckern sie sich scheinbar auch nicht mit ruhm, die herren u. damen....: Die UN und die USA haben kein Konzept gegen den Terror in Afghanistan. Deutscher Truppenabzug?

Call for Germany to quit Afghanistan

26 June 2003 BERLIN - Germany's main servicemen's group declared the western peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan a failure this week and called for Germany to either win the force more robust powers or pull out all 2,300 personnel.

Bernhard Gertz, president of the Armed Forces Association, which represents both serving personnel and ex-soldiers, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA in an interview that the force, which is restricted to Kabul, did not have adequate powers.

The United Nations and United States had no workable concept about how to oppose terrorism in Afghanistan, he said, and it was wrong to risk German lives any longer when the mission was in danger of failure.

On 7 June, a terror attack killed four German soldiers. Gertz said even that had failed to generate public debate about the mission.

Analysts said Gertz's comments reflect growing frustration in the armed forces that the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has no authority to range beyond Kabul and quell both warlords and terror groups who pose a threat to the western-backed government.

Senior officers in Germany are not allowed to criticize the government in public but the association often reflects their views.

Gertz said the idea of extending ISAF's mandate beyond Kabul was right, but not as a regional reconstruction force.

"The civilian staff and soldiers would go there cap in hand, with no authority, and be only able to make empty threats," he said.

The disaster of the Taliban and al-Qaeda returning to Afghanistan was already well advanced, he added.

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