#21

The first few weeks in office for German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg have been eventful, and could work to the young politician’s advantage.

He has reversed his initial support for the German-ordered September 4 deadly airstrike in Afghanistan, now saying the attack was militarily disproportionate. Though Guttenberg claims his reassessment came after learning that the Germany military had hid information about numerous civilian deaths resulting from the attack, certain liberal elements in the German press sympathetic to the Free Democrats, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partner, imply that he may have known the details of the strike immediately upon taking office, and point to a cover-up by the German government.

The airstrike, ordered by German Col. Georg Klein, targeted two fuel trucks that had been hijacked by Taliban terrorists near a German military base, and killed an unknown number of assumed Taliban and civilians.

The liberal press are claiming that it was the deadliest operation involving German troops since the time of Hitler. They neglect to mention the untold number of Serbian civilians slaughtered by the Luftwaffe in the illegal Balkan wars of the 1990s.

The media-charged political uproar resulting from the airstrike led to the resignation of Franz Josef Jung, defense minister at the time of the bombing.

“I hereby assume the political responsibility for the internal communication policy of the Defense Ministry,” Jung told parliament on November 26. He said that he knew about the civilian casualty reports for weeks beforehand, and had initially dismissed the information.

Germany’s top army officer, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and the Defense Ministry’s top deputy, Peter Wichert, also resigned over the incident. Guttenberg called for their resignations saying they had withheld the report from him about the true nature of the bombing.

Some, driven by the liberal media hype, have questioned whether the resignations were appropriate. Among these are sources supposedly close to Schneiderhan who claim that Guttenberg was briefed about the casualties before the initial press conference in which he justified the airstrike, but the skepticism has been fleeting.

Many conservative commentators have welcomed Guttenberg’s change of heart, and lauded his decision to compensate the families of the civilian victims of the attack.

Guttenberg, the rising star of German conservatism, can now fill the vacated top-level army positions with men of his choice. His success in increasing the army’s influence on the government in 2007, before he became a minister, was an early indicator of his political goals, and he remains committed to them.

World Socialist Web Site columnist Ulrich Rippert posits that Guttenberg will harness the division spawned by this incident to legitimize an expansion of the German army’s role in the Afghanistan war, and work to bolster the power of the entire army.

In Guttenberg’s inaugural visit to Washington as defense minister on November 19, he made clear that Germany was ready to bear more of the burden of the war.

“We need an updated strategy now with a clear aim and benchmarks,” Guttenberg said to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He explained that Germany will then “rethink and adjust, maybe even strengthen its military commitment to make Afghanistan a success.”

October’s change of cabinet marked the beginning of a shift in the German military’s role. Before Guttenberg, politicians carefully called the Afghanistan conflict a “stabilization effort.” Guttenberg calls the war a “war.” More than a subtlety of language, this is a significant step in showing the German public that the government will no longer downplay the grimness of the conflict. The focus will increasingly be on the gravity of the insurgency in order to convince the public that the job has to be finished, and to rally the citizens and troops behind Germany’s military efforts.

For years, leading military personnel in Germany have been calling for an end to the restrictions placed on the German army since its formation in the 1950s. They desire for German commanders to have the right to carry out offensive operations with the same license the U.S., British and Israeli armies possess. These leading military personnel will soon have their desire.

Although the German parliament has assented to an increase in Berlin’s military involvement in Afghanistan, there is unrest within Chancellor Merkel’s shaky coalition government. The young Frankish baron has opportunities in the wake of the division to continue to shake up German politics.

For more analysis on the up-and-coming Guttenberg, read “Germany—Another Shaky Coalition and Young Blood.”