Not again. (they should just have listened to Theodor Fontane)
Well. I'm officially revising everything about not being shocked about German soldiers dying in Afghanistan in my last post.
Why? Because of this: Afghanistan: suicide blast kills top police commander. There were also several ISAF casualties, three two of them German soldiers. It also appears as if RC-North commander Major General Markus Kneip (German Army) was wounded in the blast. There are suspicions that the attack was aimed specifically at General Kneip and Suspicions that General Kneip was the target of the attack turned out to be false but quite honestly, this... still weirds me out. I guess even after two or three years of German soldiers being part of open warfare, I just can't get used to them being targeted by insurgents.
For us, the deployment to Afghanistan was said to be soldiers building schools, not fighting a war and for at least seven or eight years "smile and wave" was the preferred Bundeswehr tactics and German soldiers were said to have a much better standing with the Afghan people than US soldiers, since they usually patrolled on foot and didn't drive half as aggressively as the Americans. Then Stanley McChrystal adopted "smile and wave" and German Army Colonel Klein ordered an air strike against two kidnapped tankers and suddenly everything seemd to have changed.
Hearing about the suicide attack that killed two major Afghan players in the war and three two German soldiers, I have to revise everything about not being shocked anymore. I'm appalled and I'm starting to fail in believing that anything will ever change in Afghanistan and I'm wondering how many more Afghans and ISAF soldiers will have to die until there will be something like peace in that country. I'm also standing by my assessment that killing Osama bin Laden did nothing to improve the situation but a lot to make everything worse. I'm afraid that this will be a very bloody spring and summer this year. And it makes me sad.
Why? Because of this: Afghanistan: suicide blast kills top police commander. There were also several ISAF casualties, three two of them German soldiers. It also appears as if RC-North commander Major General Markus Kneip (German Army) was wounded in the blast. There are suspicions that the attack was aimed specifically at General Kneip and Suspicions that General Kneip was the target of the attack turned out to be false but quite honestly, this... still weirds me out. I guess even after two or three years of German soldiers being part of open warfare, I just can't get used to them being targeted by insurgents.
For us, the deployment to Afghanistan was said to be soldiers building schools, not fighting a war and for at least seven or eight years "smile and wave" was the preferred Bundeswehr tactics and German soldiers were said to have a much better standing with the Afghan people than US soldiers, since they usually patrolled on foot and didn't drive half as aggressively as the Americans. Then Stanley McChrystal adopted "smile and wave" and German Army Colonel Klein ordered an air strike against two kidnapped tankers and suddenly everything seemd to have changed.
Hearing about the suicide attack that killed two major Afghan players in the war and three two German soldiers, I have to revise everything about not being shocked anymore. I'm appalled and I'm starting to fail in believing that anything will ever change in Afghanistan and I'm wondering how many more Afghans and ISAF soldiers will have to die until there will be something like peace in that country. I'm also standing by my assessment that killing Osama bin Laden did nothing to improve the situation but a lot to make everything worse. I'm afraid that this will be a very bloody spring and summer this year. And it makes me sad.