Germany Approves Afghan Deployment
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BERLIN — Germany’s lower house of parliament today overwhelmingly approved extending the deployment of 3,000 troops and six reconnaissance jets in Afghanistan for another year in the face of mounting public skepticism about the mission.
The vote in the 613-seat Bundestag — 454-79 with 48 abstentions — was the final step needed to extend the mission.
Opinion polls show most Germans want the troops to come home, after attacks on German forces and kidnappings of German citizens there.
But Chancellor Merkel has argued forcefully for staying the course, saying Germany must not “leave Afghanistan in the hands of the terrorists.”
The all-weather jets are based near Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and can provide faster, farther-ranging photographic information to assist security forces on the ground than can unpiloted drones, according to the German air force.
Most of the 2,800 German ground troops are in the quieter north of the country as part of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. Germany has resisted any suggestion they should take part in the heavier fighting in the south of the country.
