Reunification, NATO Expansion Revive German Global Combat Role

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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1906570,00.html
Time Magazine
June 27, 2009

Will Germany's Army Ever Be Ready for Battle?
By Tristana Moore

-The German army as it stands today is a relatively young creation, born after a
period of demilitarization following the end of World War II. A defensive army,
the Bundeswehr has become increasingly engaged in international missions and is
coming under pressure to step up its involvement in out-and-out warfare.

-"The German public is still reluctant to accept a combat role for the
Bundeswehr," Henning Riecke, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign
Relations, tells TIME. "But Germany should become more active in Afghanistan and
allow troops to go into combat, if needed even in the south of the country. It's
time for Germany to be more flexible in Afghanistan."

-Since the 1990s, after reunification, German forces have become more involved
in military missions abroad....There are currently 247,000 soldiers enrolled in
the Bundeswehr and German troops are now serving all over the world, in places
such as Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Lebanon.


Berlin: On June 15, the German army's General Wolfgang Schneiderhan found
himself in front of an audience of politicians and senior officers defending
military policy — on sleeping bags.

Many German soldiers "are whingeing to high heaven," Schneiderhan said at a
reception thrown by the parliamentary army ombudsman, complaining about
everything from being sent on yet another overseas tour of duty to the
"unsuitable" sleeping bags they are given for their deployment in the Congo.
Then Schneiderhan did some complaining of his own, noting the tendency for his
officers to delegate blame, with no one taking responsibility for their actions.
"We can't guarantee an all-round, feel-good experience for our soldiers," he
said.
....

The German army as it stands today is a relatively young creation, born after a
period of demilitarization following the end of World War II. A defensive army,
the Bundeswehr has become increasingly engaged in international missions and is
coming under pressure to step up its involvement in out-and-out warfare....

Germany is the third biggest troop contributor to the NATO-led international
peacekeeping force there, with 3,700 German troops serving in Kabul and in
northern Afghanistan, around Mazar-e-Sharif, where Germany heads the northern
regional command. More German soldiers are now being sent to Afghanistan in the
run-up to the elections in August, bringing the total number to 4,200 by late
summer. There are also plans to send 300 more German troops to the country to
help support NATO's deployment of surveillance aircraft.

Germany's Afghan mission is governed by a parliamentary mandate that limits most
troops to peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts in the relatively peaceful
north of Afghanistan. Even so, at least 35 German soldiers have been killed in
Afghanistan since early 2002, most recently on Tuesday, when three died near the
northern town of Kunduz after their patrol came under fire. The mission is very
unpopular back home, but Germany has been feeling pressure from its NATO allies
to pull more of its weight and send troops to the south, the scene of fierce
battles with Taliban insurgents.

"The German public is still reluctant to accept a combat role for the
Bundeswehr," Henning Riecke, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign
Relations, tells TIME. "But Germany should become more active in Afghanistan and
allow troops to go into combat, if needed even in the south of the country. It's
time for Germany to be more flexible in Afghanistan."
....
The legacy of Germany's Nazi past has led to military limits being written into
the country's constitution. Germany was demilitarized after World War II ended
in 1945, and the process of remilitarization has only developed over time. The
Bundeswehr was formed in 1955, when West Germany joined NATO, but the
constitution held that the role of Germany's armed forces would be strictly
defensive. Initially, the German army's main job was to work with its NATO
allies to prevent any attack that might come from Warsaw Pact members.

According to Dieter Kruger, a military historian at the Institute for Military
History in Potsdam, it was only after France left NATO in 1966 that Germany's
military role became stronger. "In the past, there was no idea of deploying
German troops abroad, except in specific cases, like helping in natural
disasters," he says. "Up until the end of the Cold War, Germany had a
well-trained army, but it was more used to bureaucratic procedures."

Since the 1990s, after reunification, German forces have become more involved in
military missions abroad....There are currently 247,000 soldiers enrolled in the
Bundeswehr and German troops are now serving all over the world, in places such
as Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Lebanon.

But some say the Bundeswehr, which is a conscript army, is too bureaucratic and
ill-equipped to deal with the modern-day challenges of combat. "Germany's armed
forces are often overstretched. There are too many bases in Germany, too many
personnel and the equipment is often old-fashioned," says Riecke of the German
Council on Foreign Relations. "There is long-overdue reform under way to make
the Bundeswehr leaner. It should be easier to deploy forces quickly abroad," he
adds, referring to far-reaching plans to modernize the army's equipment and
scale back troop numbers.

In the meantime, General Schneiderhan may have to steel himself for more
complaints. U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to beef up the U.S. military
presence in Afghanistan, but will he be able to persuade NATO allies, including
Germany, to increase their own efforts there? The German parliamentary troop
mandate that limits the army mostly to peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts
runs out in December, after the federal elections. When that happens, German
soldiers could find that uncomfortable sleeping bags are the least of their
problems.
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