German Social Democrat call for an International Rapid Response Force for the ISAF

[Tarek Morgen]

According to thbe German magazin "Spiegel", MP of the German middle-left SPD have called for creating a international Rapid Response Force under ISAF command in order to counter the rising Taliban activity through out the country. Its objective would be wo act as a "fire-brigade" which would intervine where ever they were needed by other coalition or ANA forces.
Further they wanted a strong German commitment to this to be created force.
This proposal was met with sceptism in their coalition partner, the conserative CDU. They would prefer to limit the combat operation of German troops to support mission of other nato-forces in the northern region.

If this new forces would be created anyway (which is rather unlikly) it would require a new mandate by the German Bundestag.

[glyn]

If of sufficient size this could be a good idea, but it will take political will and commitment. Limiting it to the Northern region of Afghanistan is not likely to appeal to all the coalition partners though. Surely the point of having a rapid reaction force is to send it where it is most needed, when it is most wanted!

[Tarek Morgen]

The idea (at least the one of the SPD) is that this force should be used wherever it needed, not only in the north.

I hope this does not destroy the world view of some members here *g*
(that our liberals want to fight, but our conseratives puss out)

I'll guess you will see some increase in the German troops numbers in the coming years, but they will still mostly be bound by the same restrictions.

[Bluesman]

ISAF = I Suck At Fighting.

Nah, let'em keep guarding Kabul Airport. Us and the Brits and the Canucks will go do the actual fighting. Maybe someday ISAF will actually commit to sending more than pastry chefs and copier repairmen to the fight, but almost certainly, the fighting will be over by then.

Jaded? ME? nah...

[Tarek Morgen]

uhm those canucks and brits are (to the best of my knowledge) parts of isaf...and I don't think the 25 dead german soldiers died while trying to fix copiers.

[Exarecr]

Hey Terek Morgen,can you say caveat. It,s modern speak for stay inside the fence! It,s the new word for"not pulling ones weight". It,s the French, the Italians and yes the Germans with large military formations sitting pretty and dent free while the Americans,Brits, Dutch, and Canadians do most of the Combat. It,s really a matter of honour. You can jump off the fence and get a little dirty and be usefull,or keep building that fence untill it,s so high all your armies will run out of sunglasses looking up at it in admiration.