DW: Germany Starts Rethinking its Foreign Deployments

[blackhorse]

Germany Starts Rethinking its Foreign Deployments

German soldiers are engaged in eleven foreign missions. But after a scandal with soldiers in Afghanistan and fears that the military is overstretched, some want a reduction in the numbers of troops being sent abroad.

For decades after World War II, the prospect of German soldiers being stationed in any foreign country was taboo. But since reunification, the German military is being called upon increasingly to contribute troops to United Nations or NATO-sponsored operations abroad.

Right now, there are some 9,000 soldiers on foreign missions, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Balkans, Lebanon and Afghanistan.

But in recent days, a debate has broken out over whether Germany has been too fast to agree to send troops abroad and if Berlin's willingness to participate in various foreign deployments has overstretched its military.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2221383,00.html