Southwest Asian War Zone

Increase in Troops

With a large-scale troop increase, western nations are preparing a new military offensive against Afghan insurgents. The USA, alone, has increased its troop levels in Afghanistan from 32,000 (at the end of 2008) to about 56,000. They are to increase further to 68,000 by this fall. The German Bundeswehr, which currently has 3,600 soldiers on the ground, will, over the next few months, also field more troops. The mandated maximum is 4,500 soldiers. Altogether there are currently some 90,000 soldiers from 40 countries stationed in the warzone, due to the strong escalation of the uprising in Afghanistan. At the beginning of 2004, the number of insurgent attacks was still at about 50 per week, and a year ago at around 250/wk. In the meantime it has risen to nearly 400/wk, with tendency still rising.

Special Forces

US General Stanley McChrystal, who took over the supreme command of all western forces at the Hindu Kush on Monday - both the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) and the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) - is planning massive attacks against the insurgents. McChrystal made his name as commander of the US Special Forces. A large part of the new troops currently being sent, will be made up of special commandos that will seek to destroy the enemy command structure with offensive assaults.[1] Observers have drawn attention to the fact that it was when McChrystal commanded the U.S. Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan that the most contentious civilian deaths occurred.[2] His former units are also being accused of having tortured detainees.[3] Because of Berlin's policy of secrecy, it is not known whether the Bundeswehr's Special Forces Commando (KSK) will also be under McChrystal's supreme command.

Aerial Attacks

But what is known is that Germany will be actively participating in the expansion of the aerial warfare. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the cabinet will agree to dispatch up to four AWACS planes - including the Bundeswehr crew members to serve and guard NATO's surveillance planes. The AWACS are meant to coordinate the primarily military air traffic over Afghanistan caused by the significant rise in western flight activity, resulting from the increase in troop levels. At the airport in Kandahar, alone, there will soon be around 350 combat and transport helicopters, fighter bombers and drones standing ready for the ISAF and OEF.[4] Simultaneously the number of air offensives, involving reconnaissance missions of the German tornados, is continuously rising. Last May, US combat aircraft dropped 478 bombs, more than in any other month of May. In addition, there are the low-altitude attacks with aircraft weapons, as well as small missiles, for which there is no detailed accounting.[5] The air attacks are notorious for regularly causing dozens of civilian casualties.

Bundeswehr Combat: New Quality

For the first time since the beginning of the Western occupation, open combat has been escalating also in German controlled Northeast Afghanistan. Over the last few weeks, the Bundeswehr has had several battles with the insurgents leaving numerous casualties, including a German soldier, the first to die in combat - rather than ambush - since 1945. According to the Arab TV station, Al Jazeera, the Taliban are now controlling large areas of the German zone of occupation and are openly challenging the Bundeswehr, announcing new attacks.[6] More than a hundred mujahideen and twelve suicide bombers are ready and waiting for their orders to attack the German forces. Presently new KZO ("small aircraft for locating targets") reconnaissance drones are being transferred to Kunduz. They enable the German Bundeswehr to detect possible insurgents even at night and within a radius of 65 to 100 km.[7] A large contingent of the "Quick Reaction Force", (QRF), has already reached Kunduz, where the combat has taken on “a new quality", the Parliamentary State Secretary, in the German Defense Ministry, Christian Schmidt (CSU), declared a few days ago after visiting the troops.[8]

Partisan Warfare

German military experts refer to "disconcerting similarities to the developments in Vietnam four decades ago." As the former State Secretary in the German Defense Ministry, Lothar Ruehl expressed it, it is no longer fitting to speak of an "Afghanistan War". With the combat in Pakistan, it has blended into "a Southwest Asian war zone". It is developing into the "transformation from a guerrilla to partisan war". "Such a development" writes Ruehl "took place also four decades ago in South Vietnam, in spite of the massive superiority of - at times - up to a half-million American soldiers and a - numerically - strong national army" that was well equipped with "modern weaponry and American military advisors all the way to company level."[9] Ruehl recalls that, in general, "South Vietnam, at the end of the 60s, was more densely militarily occupied by the USA and its allies, than Southwest Asia is today." Still the war "swept throughout the country and undermined the South Vietnamese state." Military experts have come to see that "this problem is also on the agenda in Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Further information on German Afghanistan policy can be found here: On the Ruins of War, The Greens' local in Kabul, The Retreat Option, Hopeless, To Accomplish a Mission, Perspective of Withdrawal, Paramilitary, Human Intelligence, The Next War, Part of the Problem, Contribution to Operational Command and War Coordination.

[1] Bringing in the special forces; CBC News 11.06.2009
[2] McChrystal takes over in Afghanistan; AP 15.06.2009
[3] US general faces Iraq abuse questions, groups say; Reuters 01.06.2009
[4] Bund erhöht Truppenstärke in Afghanistan; Spiegel Online 13.06.2009
[5] Afghanistan bombings top charts in May; Navy Times 12.06.2009
[6] Taliban fighters extending control; Al Jazeera 11.06.2009
[7] Zielstrebig ins Gefecht; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 11.06.2009
[8] Bundeswehr: Taliban kämpfen härter; Rheinische Post 15.06.2009
[9] Übergang zum Partisanenkrieg; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 23.05.2009