The Public's Keen Sensitivity

To the Limit of What is Legally Possible

The German government has announced that it will supply military equipment to the Kurdistan Regional Government's army in northern Iraq. A spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense confirmed yesterday that the shipments would begin this week. Berlin is also contemplating furnishing vehicles, night vision instruments, body armor and helmets from Bundeswehr stocks, for use in the war against the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), a terrorist organization. The Kurdistan Regional Government is asking that anti-tank weapons and assault rifles be included. Even though it has yet to be decided, a growing number of Berlin's politicians are calling for supplying also lethal weapons. Government members of Bavaria's CSU Party are proposing that "Milan" anti-tank missiles be delivered; former German Foreign Minster Joseph Fischer (The Greens) is advocating arms deliveries and even the leader of the LEFT Party in the Bundestag, Gregor Gysi, was also in favor, for a while last week.[1] Last weekend, Minister of Economics, Sigmar Gabriel, signaled his consent and the Minister of Defense, seemed to do likewise. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had already announced that Berlin will "go to the limit of what is legally possible" to support the Kurdistan Regional Government.[2]

A New Intra-Western Division of Labor

Last Friday's EU Foreign Ministers' resolution to "welcome the decision by individual Member States" to deliver military equipment to the Kurdistan Regional Government, is embedded in a strategic context far surpassing their struggle against the ISIS terrorists. Friday, the EU foreign ministers acknowledged a "European responsibility to cooperate with Iraq in our common fight against terrorism."[3] This corresponds to the EU's intentions - within the intra-Western division of labor with the United States - to take on more of a control function in North Africa and the Middle East. The USA - setting its sights more on its rivalry with China and shifting its geopolitical focus to eastern and southeastern Asia ("Pivot to Asia," german-foreign-policy.com reported [4]) - is hoping for Berlin and Brussels to relieve it of its tasks in other areas of the world. Berlin, seeing a new opportunity to expand German/European power, is very receptive to this idea. "German security policy" should "focus primarily on the increasingly instable European environment extending across North Africa, the Middle East and up to Central Asia," remarked the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in a strategy paper last October - "not least of all to relieve its NATO ally, the USA, in its growing engagement in Asia."[5]

A signal to the USA

Last week, Guido Steinberg, an expert on the Middle East at the SWP, called on the EU and its member countries to become more engaged in Iraq, explicitly to ease the US' burden. "The Europeans are not needed, from a purely military standpoint," explained Steinberg frankly, the US military is "quite capable" of making aerial raids against ISIS positions. "The US can also easily take care of arms deliveries."[6] "Politically," however, it is "nevertheless important for the Europeans to offer their support for the air strikes and weapons supplies to the Kurdish army." After all, this "is affecting the European neighborhood." "The Europeans could show that they care just as much about what happens in their neighborhood to the Southeast as to the East." A German-European intervention against ISIS would send "a signal to the USA," indicating readiness for a stronger engagement.

Genocide as Argument

The campaigns to send arms to the Iraqi Kurdish military and even to have the Bundeswehr participate in military missions against the ISIS, being waged by diverse politicians, must be seen in their strategic context. Since the fall of 2013, there has been a campaign to expand German military interventions. Even German President Joachim Gauck has lent his support. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[7]) Last spring, an opinion poll by the Körber Foundation in Hamburg revealed a relatively low approval in the German population for Bundeswehr missions, which, at best, could be raised in cases of a "threat to peace and security in Europe" or to "prevent genocide."[8] ISIS' mass slaughter in Iraq offers an opportunity for initiating broad-based support for military intervention against genocide, thereby winning Bundeswehr interventions more legitimacy.

Emergency Situation

Calls for the German military to intervene in Iraq, are growing louder. Just last week, the Green parliamentary group foreign policy spokesperson, Omid Nouripour, declared that he "believes that the German public has a very keen sensitivity ... for emergency situations," and "that it knows that people must be urgently rescued from the ISIS butchers." Inconvenient tasks should not always be left solely up to the United States." This is why "the German air force" should join the US mission against ISIS strongholds.[9] Referring to government circles, a current report states that the German government has come around to supporting an "international mission" to Northern Iraq; the only thing needed is a UN Security Council resolution.[10]

Unasked Questions

Just how the ISIS has been able to accomplish such an onslaught, is a question not being asked. The brutal invasions by western countries - the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and interference in the Syrian War since 2011 - are the essential causes for the comprehensive disintegration of the Iraqi and Syrian societies, practically providing a free reign for the ISIS terrorist organization. german-foreign-policy.com reports tomorrow, Wednesday.

[1] "Größeres Unheil verhindern". www.taz.de 11.08.2014.
[2] "Wir dürfen bei Völkermord nicht tatenlos zuschauen". www.faz.net 17.08.2014.
[3] Council conclusions on Iraq. Brussels, 15 August 2014.
[4] See Das pazifische Jahrhundert.
[5] Neue Macht - Neue Verantwortung. Elemente einer deutschen Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik für eine Welt im Umbruch. Ein Papier der Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) und des German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), Oktober 2013. See The Re-Evaluation of German Foreign Policy.
[6] Interview: "Europa sollte USA bei Luftangriffen gegen IS und Aufrüstung der Kurden helfen". www.swp-berlin.org 12.08.2014.
[7] See Sleeping Demons, The Re-Evaluation of German Foreign Policy, Die Weltpolitik-Kampagne der Eliten and The Elite wants more.
[8] Einmischen oder zurückhalten? Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Umfrage von TNS Infratest Politikforschung zur Sicht der Deutschen auf die Außenpolitik. Hamburg, Mai 2014.
[9] Grünen-Außenpolitiker Nouripour zum Irak: "Deutsche Luftwaffe könnte den US-Einsatz unterstützen". www.spiegel.de 13.08.2014.
[10] Waffenlieferungen an Kurden: Gabriel will bei Völkermord im Irak nicht tatenlos zusehen. www.spiegel.de 17.08.2014.