German Green party members oppose their leaders’ support for Afghan war

‘This video showing a German army instructor telling one of his soldiers to envision African-Americans in the Bronx while firing his machine gun was broadcast Saturday.

The video, coming after scandals involving photos of German soldiers posing with skulls in Afghanistan and the abuse of recruits by instructors, seemed likely to raise more questions about training practices in Germany’s conscript army.’

From AFP news agency:

Germany’s Greens in disarray over Afghanistan

09-15-2007, 20h55

GOETTINGEN, Germany

Germany’s Green party, which when in power helped launch their country’s peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, on Saturday failed to agree a common line on the deployment of troops there.

A raucous party congress, aimed at bridging a deep rift over whether to pull out the military contingent, came five days before the parliament in Berlin is to discuss the issue.

A majority of the 800 delegates disavowed their leadership, rejecting a motion to unconditionally approve the planned extension of the troops’ mandate.

Instead they adopted a motion setting conditions for the participation of German troops in any military operations in Afghanistan.

They also rejected any use of German Tornado reconnaissance jets in the war-torn country and sending German troops to fight in operations against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. …

More than 50 percent of Germans want an immediate withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan according to a poll carried out by the Forsa institute earlier this month.

See also here. And here.

German demonstration against Afghan war: here.

Update October 2007 here.

German Green rightward evolution, up to 2013: here.

Joschka Fischer demands German combat troops be sent to southern Afghanistan: here.

German president Horst Köhler argued in favour of rehabilitating Germany’s militarist tradition at the recent Berlin Forum for Security Policy: here.

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