It sounds like a simple question: If the Federal armed forces involved in an international controlled security zone in Syria, what do you need then? But the answer to that is anything other than easy.
Sometimes disarmament is, of course, overnight. Not in reality, but in the minds of politicians. For example, the CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter. 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers in This order of magnitude Kiesewetter called, as he was raised on Monday at the initiative of the Federal Minister of defence.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had just brought an international controlled security zone in Northern Syria to the conversation, and since then it is completely clear that you can not want to do without German participation possible. But this is not easy, even if you are the owner of the command and command authority over the armed forces.
Defence Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer (right) of the CDU and foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD)
Overnight halved
But first, back to the CDU-man Kiesewetter and disarmament. As the member of the Bundestag, a former General staff officer of the Bundeswehr, was asked on the following day the German press Agency once again, he had disarmed already, almost overnight. 15,000 troops plus 15,000 civilian volunteers would be necessary, said Kiesewetter now. You could make the fun, the next day again to ask – maybe the protection force would have been halved again.
The party friend the Minister is one of the very few who dares, with specific details to such a force of – Yes, the comparison is apt – from the cover. A single fighter, in terms of Numbers. Anyone who asks otherwise by the political Berlin, the device into the opaque thicket: What is the Bundeswehr needs to be in Syria? Or: What it has to offer? Clear questions, hardly any answers.
A Model For Afghanistan?
The exact ideas of the Minister of defence are not very clear. After the meeting of the Federal Cabinet, the members of the defense Committee, sought on Wednesday to information. In the Ministry of defence it was said that both the French and the British as well as the Turkey would have reacted to the proposal of the Minister is positive. The US government had shown itself to be also pleased about the initiative.
Conceivable is, for example, that one could split after the model of Afghanistan with a protection zone in Northern Syria in various areas, for each of the lead Nations, the primary responsibility could apply. Conversations could be with Canada. However, it is too early to say what this could mean for Engagement of the Bundeswehr.
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Kramp-Karrenbauer for a security zone in Syria: the Interview in full length
SPD on the retreat
Within the coalition government, the proposal is highly controversial. As the Partner of the SPD is at the Moment, more on the retreat, with regard to the military Engagement of Germany in all over the world. In the Bundestag, the extension of the Anti-IS mandate is this Thursday to the debate, and it is no secret that the social Democrats would stop this use – Aufklärungsjets over Iraq and Syria, as well as an instructor for soldiers in Iraq – like.
Here, the defense was able to make the Minister have yet to be persuaded. Maybe this is also the reason that the CDU Chief Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) had submitted their latest idea about the outside just in a SMS message before it went Public.
This is the situation in which the defense Ministry spokesman, Frank ensign, is at noon in the Federal press conference. “It is always being asked: How many soldiers, how many planes, how much the tank should be involved. This question does not arise, because the solution can and should be a political one.” Government spokesman Steffen Seibert explained with views of the coalition partners: “The formation of opinion within the government on the proposal of the Minister of defence is not yet complete.”
Delicate Mission: the German armed forces at the airport of Gao in Mali
The Word “Combat Troops”
In the defence Committee, Kramp can-Karrenbauer participants, with the look that you would find a Mission on the Basis of the existing UN security Council decision on Syria under the leadership of the United Nations ideal. And, although analogous to the stabilization deployment of Minusma in Mali, as the dpa reported, citing participants of the meeting.
As a task, the Minister would have called for the Monitoring of the areas, as well as measures in case of infringements of the applicable rules. To do this, leadership skills, education, mobility in the air and on the ground, a rescue for injured and logistics are required. Also, the word “combat troops” had fallen.
Mali: Where 50 Nations work together
Mobility in the air and on the ground – in the case of the Minusma Mission in Mali, this means up to 1100 German soldiers. A total of more than 50 Nations are participating currently, with around 11,000 blue helmet soldiers, as well as about 1500 police officers and civilian staff of the operation. The majority of the German deployment contingent is stationed in Gao (Camp Castor). Germany also provides personnel for the headquarters in Bamako and operates in Niamey, the capital of neighboring Niger, an air transport base. From there, Material and personnel transport and flights for medical care, start.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert: “the formation of opinion within the Federal government, not yet completed”
So this is the order of magnitude. Mali is currently the most dangerous foreign deployment of the Bundeswehr. A use in the North of Syria, which requires the consent of the President, Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad and Recep Tayipp Erdogan, would not be less sensitive. That the United States had stationed in the area in question last just 1,000 men, shows at least, how different it evaluates the magnitude of the task. If it is politically ready to face the task.