Early Afghan pullout would be worse than 9/11: Merkel

[NJmaverick]

Source: Agence France-Presse

BERLIN -- Leaving Afghanistan too soon would be "far more disastrous" than 9/11 due to the risk of extremists acquiring nuclear materials, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, defending an unpopular mission.

"The international community went in together, and we will pull out together. If we do not then the consequences, I am convinced, would be far more disastrous than the results of the September 11, 2001 attacks," Merkel said.

"Just looking at the map makes this clear. Right next door to Afghanistan is nuclear-armed Pakistan, and we have to assume that another neighbour, Iran, is also doing everything it can to become a nuclear power," she said in parliament.

In a spirited defence of the deployment following the deaths of seven German soldiers this month, Merkel noted that a recent conference organised by US President Barack Obama had agreed that "nuclear terrorism is one of the world's biggest security dangers."

Read more: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0422/afghan-pullout-worse-911-merkel/

[Cha]

1. I don't believe we would still be

there if it weren't absolutley necessary.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Oh - I thought she meant

Chile 1973.

[Robb]

3. This comes off as fear-peddling, although

...in Germany the climate seems to be a touch different.

That Spiegel quote at the end struck me, particularly, about how Germans in this generation aren't used to (or probably comfortable with) the idea of "German war heroes," which is how the Chancellor is framing German soldiers recently killed.

[NJmaverick]

7. You raise and interesting point Robb

for a nation that grew up with a shameful past, I imagine this situation is a shock to the system.

[CountAllVotes]

4. send more soldiers Merkel

if you think it is such a grand idea, send more! Be sure to count the dead btw. :grr:

:kick:

[NJmaverick]

9. I hope she does, it would be a big help

[CountAllVotes]

11. she won't

cannot spare any members of "The Master Race" ya know!

:kick:

[IndianaGreen]

19. Why don't you enlist to help our troops in this war you support?

Let someone else come back home alive and in one piece.

[TheWatcher]

20. Why would he bother his Beautiful Mind with something like that?

[Tempest]

5. Send more of your own troops then, Merkel

There's only 4,500 German soldiers in Afghanistan.

It's easy for her to say when her country doesn't have a big stake in the outcome.

[CountAllVotes]

8. exactly!

4500 troops for cannon fodder is nothing! America has how many troops over there? I've lost count!

Damn this woman for her stupid remarks!

I truly hope she knows how to count the dead! :mad:

[Jennicut]

6. Our being in Afghanistan would not stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

And we are not invading Iran anytime soon (at least I hope not). Our military is worn out.

[DRex]

12. Agreed, and I also fail to see how having coalition troops

stuck fighting in Afghanistan helps the situation in Pakistan. Catch-22 proving once again that war doesn't solve problems, it just replaces them with other ones at the cost of countless lives and billions of dollars.

They'll need a draft to go into Iran, god forbid.

[conspirator]

10. Merkel, not you too with this TERRA speech. I am disapointed nt

[mike_c]

13. utter bullshit....

The Taliban is a Pashtun tribal movement with zero international ambitions. Waziristan is likewise isolationist. Neither has any interest in nuclear weapons or international terrorism. They never have.

[Jumping John]

14. It seems from this editorial that German troops lack training and

equipment in Afghanistan.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,687758,00.html

[NJmaverick]

16. Training yes but it seems like they have the equipment they need over there

[laststeamtrain]

15. There's some confusion here. I don't think it was Merkel who said this.

It was Urkel.

[sakabatou]

17. You need more Teflon for that slope, Merkel?

[IndianaGreen]

18. Afghanistan has nukes?

The German people don't share Merkel's hawkish views on the war.

[Hardrada]

21. Maybe when Shrub rubbed her neck it was actually a Vulcan mind-meld!

[Nihil]

22. Not so much a "mind-meld" as "connecting her brain to a vacuum".

[ShortnFiery]

23. Oh please, we've KILLED enough people over there. The natives loathe us, it's time to go ...

and trust that those who RESIDE in those harsh, tribal areas can work it out.

WHITE MAN'S BURDEN has long past.

Bring the troops home NOW! Let the native peoples sort out their OWN problems.

http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-god_almighty.jpg

[ShortnFiery]

24. WE, the USA, should know that this occupation is wrong when the GERMAN troops start to revolt?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1267802/German-troops-Afghanistan-Angela-Merkel-explain-theyre-war.html

Unable to engage the Taliban directly on the ground, frustrated by their government’s inability to acknowledge they are even engaged in a war and angered by the lack of popular support for their mission, the badges are a low-key mutiny that has sent shock waves through the top brass of the Bundeswehr.
Soldiers were warned this week that it is illegal to sew the cloth patches on to their uniforms.
But that hasn’t stopped them from buying the badges in their hundreds, in desert beige or NATO green, at the ISAF camp at Mazar-e-Sharif.
'They want the Chancellor, their ultimate boss, to finally find the clear words to put the war against the Taliban into black and white,' Bild Zeitung, Germany’s biggest daily paper, said today.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1267802/German-troops-Afghanistan-Angela-Merkel-explain-theyre-war.html#ixzz0lvSUlTx8