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maddezmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 07:45 AM
Original message
Germany rejects US troop request for southern Afghanistan
Source: AFP

BERLIN (AFP) - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Friday that Berlin had no plans to deploy combat troops in battle-ravaged southern Afghanistan, after an urgent US request for NATO partners to do more to stabilise the country.

Jung told reporters that German troops serving with a NATO peacekeeping operation would continue to focus on reconstruction efforts in the relatively calm north of Afghanistan.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly sent an "unusually stern" letter to Jung last month demanding combat troops, helicopters and paratroopers.

Josef responded with a similarly "direct and stern" letter, the paper said, without quoting the letters directly.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080201/wl_afp/germanyusafghanistannatomilitarysouth_080201121025
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ixion Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 07:51 AM
Response to Original message
1. We destablise, then whine for others to stabilise
that seems to be the 'Murikan way. How long before we don't have any friends left in the world?
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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 10:51 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. yes, We had our chance and blew it.
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sattahipdeep Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 11:01 AM
Response to Original message
3. $1bn a year
Single most ineffective programme in the history of American foreign policy," Mr Holbrooke writes.


"It's not just a waste of money. It actually strengthens the Taleban and
al-Qaeda, as well as criminal elements within Afghanistan," he writes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7206205.stm






Boucher's comments....

"No one can tell me that Afghanistan is not going in the right direction,"
he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/31/us.afghanistan/



US 'unable to defend its own soil'
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:11:31

Analysts believe the US has overstretched its military throughout the
world, focusing on policing the world and the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq and is therefore putting the American nation at risk.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=41274§ionid=3510203
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 11:19 AM
Response to Original message
4. I wonder how you say "blow me" in diplomatic language?
Germany has come a long way since the end of WWII, and so has the USA.
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Nihil Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 11:42 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Makes you think doesn't it?
> Germany has come a long way since the end of WWII, and so has the USA.

I sometimes wonder if time is simply a Moebius band with the different
nations being insects crawling along its length ...
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 12:16 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Or "What goes around, comes around."
Nobody stays on top forever. Even though I am a US citizen and patriot, I take pleasure is watching the panic start to set in in the hearts of these treasonous swine.
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apnu Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 12:04 PM
Response to Original message
6. Hey, look! Its the Pottery Barn rule in effect!
"You broke it, you bought it."
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ConcernedCanuk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 01:37 PM
Response to Original message
8. The Soviet Union is no more as it wasted it's resources in Afghanistan
.
.
.

It would be a good thing in my opinion if the same thing happened to the not so united States.

Imagine the present "United States" divided up into 3 or more countries like what happened with the Soviet Union.

Heck,

North America might get to be a likable continent again.

I'm sure ashamed of my present government for flipping into a combat role from a peacekeeping/rebuilding role.

I was proud when Chretien refused to join in the USA's illegal war - remember his statement well "A proof is a proof is a proof. Show me a proof" of the imaginary WMD's

But the USA Went to war on speculation.

Good for Germany - tell the US to shove it -

Despite all the showing off of military might

The USA is coming up "wimp"

And foolish

THAT is My Canuk Observation
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 01:42 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. Well, the US is constitutionally a federation.
It seems probable that kicking the federal imperium to the curb would do the job, the restoration of state autonomy, while retaining the advances in democratic process that we have made at such cost. We could even be a normal country again.
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ConcernedCanuk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 02:28 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. "kicking the federal imperium to the curb " - That's the spirit!
.
.
.

Gets my vote for sure!
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kineneb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-01-08 01:39 PM
Response to Original message
9. Huzzah for German pragmatism!
They have learned from history. Apparently, the US never will.
:banghead:
Alas.
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SpikeTss Donating Member (308 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-02-08 03:20 AM
Response to Original message
12. Germany rejects US demand to increase Afghan deployment
Good to see that Germany really has learned from history. When the running wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, they might be on the innocent side this time. The Bush, Brown and Blair administrations have done things that no one thought were possible after the end of World War II and it's good to see that some nations like Germany behave civilized and don't follow the example of the US.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/germany-rejects-us-demand-to-increase-afghan-deployment-777239.html

Germany's response was a mixture of outrage and surprise. Initial comments leaked from an unnamed defence ministry source described the Gates' letter as "impertinent", and as a "fantastic cheek". One official accused Mr Gates of trying to inflict "psychological torture" on Germany.

...

Democrat MPs in Ms Merkel's conservative-led grand coalition government also argued strongly against the idea of sending troops south. Rainer Arnold, the party's defence spokesman, warned that the idea risked undermining the already shaky public support for Germany's entire Afghanistan mission.

"I cannot see broad acceptance for this idea coming from parliament or from the public", he said "This is a precondition for our continued presence in Afghanistan." Germany's presence in the relatively peaceful north of Afghanistan is already unpopular. An opinion poll last year suggested that more than 50 per cent of Germans wanted a complete withdrawal of troops. Ms Merkel's government is currently facing opposition to plans to deploy a 200-strong unit of combat forces in the north to replace a Norwegian unit which is currently policing the region.
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lebkuchen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-02-08 03:26 PM
Response to Original message
13. German troops learn about a region's culture before going in
thus, few problems for them in the north. This is a big reason why Germany did not get involved in Iraq. They knew US troops (and mercenaries) were not educated about the culture they would be involved with, and this would create huge problems for them, which it has.
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ohio2007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-02-08 04:05 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Yeah, they know which part of Afghanistan the Taliban's roots originated from
Southern Afghanistan is where the shooting is ramped up with the strongest resistance. It is going into the homeland of the Taliban. Nobody wants to really take the fight to the Taliban.

/sarc
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lebkuchen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-02-08 04:20 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Several more military bases sit empty in Germany due to BRAC
Base Realignment--Bush's snit-fit against the Germans for not being a coalition member, but it's going to be cheaper for Germans to lose the few US dollars that American soldiers had spent off base (mostly on beer) in exchange for getting their land back (albeit grappling with how to incorporate it into their housing market) and in lieu of spending millions, if not billions, of euro on the sinkhole that has become Iraq--not to mention risking terrorist attacks on its soil per Spain and England.
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