43 Responses to Germany’s Top General Quits over Afghan War Cover-Up of Civilian Killings; US Implications

1. Jason Rosenbaum November 26th, 2009 at 8:44 pm «

   Obama is apparently going to ask allies for 10,000 more troops at least. We’ll see if he gets it…
• fflambeau November 26th, 2009 at 8:50 pm «

  Yes, Jason, the New York Times (as shown in my diary) is reporting that Obama wants 10,000 troops from NATO. Germany has the 3rd most troops in Afghanistan after the U.S. and the U.K. It is likely that Germany will send zero more combat troops after this incident. Gordon Brown’s support for the Afghanistan war is also one of the reasons for his unpopularity, with his numbers perhaps worse than W’s before he left office.
2. shekissesfrogs November 26th, 2009 at 8:56 pm «

   Good News! Are planets aligning somehow?

   “It is of the utmost importance that an American announcement of an increased troop number in Afghanistan is followed by additional troop contributions from other allies,” Mr. Rasmussen said.

   Accomplices and collaborators are dropping out. Hopefully the entire facade will crumble under it’s own weight.

   Great post!
3. acquarius74 November 26th, 2009 at 9:03 pm «

   Thank you, fflambeau. Recommended. You will recall this tragedy is the one where a grieving father said, “I took home a piece of flesh and called it my son.”

   We Americans are so blocked off from the true facts by heavily screened news and pictures, and have been lied to so often that we have to look to foreign news articles to learn what is going on there as well as Iraq; and then so much time has passed by the time we learn it. We must learn all those ugly truths coming out of Britain because our cowardly people in power, then and now, must hide what they have done at all costs.

   I’ve been intensely studying our past history from WWII on to try to understand when and why the world tilted for the USA and turned wrong into right for our governing body.

   I found the article at this link very encouraging.
• fflambeau November 26th, 2009 at 9:17 pm «

  Thanks acquarius74. If you want to find out where the USA turned wrong, I think you have to read William Appleman Williams, considered to be the greatest revisionist historian of the 20th century. Especially recommended are his The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (1959) and The Contours of American Foreign History (1961). Both books are on an highly regarded list of the most influential books of the last century. Gore Vidal was a huge fan of Williams and Vidal’s American Empire series of historical novels is also an excellent read. Although they are fictional, they are beautifully written and researched with Vidal’s unmistakeable touch of humor. From my own viewpoint there were 3 major turning points:
  1) the American intervention in the Spanish American War and esecially the war in the Philippines; 2) Wilson’s embrace of Empire and his leading the US into WW I 3) the tragic consequences of WWII which brought about the American military industrial complex.

  All else follows from these 3 seminal events. Obama is yet another Democrat would-be American Empire builder.
• acquarius74 November 27th, 2009 at 8:42 am «

  Thank you, fflambeau, for the Williams history recommendation. I would add one more critical event to your 3: The entry into the USA of those few men in the late 1890s-1903 who met in 1910 on Jeykl Island and worked out the formation of The Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Wilson later said that signing that legislation was the worst mistake of his administration. IMO it has been the control of Big Money that has brought upon our country and the world most of its tragedies.
• fflambeau November 27th, 2009 at 9:05 am «

  Great posts, Acquarius74, this one and the prior one about your “inner journey”. I agree with you about the Federal Reserve; there is actually a bill before Congress to have oversight of it and that is long overdue. But it will likely never be passed.

  Another great book (and author for you). If you want an excellent history of the US but a quite different read than the usual nonsense, pick up Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. It has sold millions and tells a completely different story about the US than most. Zinn is a professor at Boston U, an author and social activist. He also has a documentary history (in another book) that supports the History. Zinn’s book provides an excellent starting point for a the REAL history of the United States which has been violent since its inception. It will lead you to other things. Bill Williams’s writing is much more difficult and rather advanced stuff. Bacevich (referred to by another poster) is also good and develops some of Williams’ themes; he’s obviously more current than Williams, who taught at Wisconsin when I was there, whose books are classics.
• Nathan Aschbacher November 27th, 2009 at 12:12 am «

  If you haven’t read it already, pick up a copy of Andrew Bacevich’s “The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War”

  I have a signed hard-cover copy I’ll lend you if you promise to give it back when you’re done.
• acquarius74 November 27th, 2009 at 8:33 am «

  Thank you, Nathan. That is very generous of you. I’ll pick up a copy of the book (your copy might get lost in the stacks that surround me). You see, Nathan, I was in 6th grade when WWII ended. Back then we received a weekly reader of Current Events. After re-learning what I have up to this point, it should have been named Weekly Current Indoctrination. We were instructed that only those dirty Reds used propaganda to fool their people and the world…

  While pursuing the American Dream there wasn’t time to read much and I trusted that our Leaders were making wise decisions in the best interest of our country. Only in the last few years have I learned that Churchill wasn’t a very nice man, that Truman’s vote for the State of Israel was really due to his need for the 300,000 Jewish vote in the Truman/Dewey election and not because true-blue USA always weighed in on the right side of world issues.

  Only since my children were grown and I retired from outside employment have I had time to learn the right-side-up of things as they really were, that Allan Dulles and his brother were two of the worst scoundrels in our history, and the lonely battles that JFK was fighting in his short time as president.

  These are just examples of my inner journey in the last few years. All in all, it’s been a difficult and depressing endeavor to learn of and sort out the Truth from disinformation and lies which I never dreamed that our leaders would visit upon us.
• Acharn November 28th, 2009 at 1:18 am «

  I certainly agree with you about the Dulles brothers. I can’t remember now if it was Halberstam’s “The Best and The Brightest” that opened my eyes about him or if that just opened my awareness and more information came later. Halberstam’s book is great, but of course it’s only about how we got into Vietnam, and more information has been declassified since he wrote it.

  I was only in 2nd grade when WWII ended, but I remember Weekly Reader, now that you mention it. Ah, even nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
• shekissesfrogs November 27th, 2009 at 11:01 am «

  A revisionist history site for WWII that I like is scrapbookpages.com Americans were in charge of the trials at Dachau so that’s where I started. Apparently we were torturing them back then too, and those trials were for show. The massacre at malmedy probably never happened.
  FDR and Winston Churchill began the mass propaganda program targeted at citizens to sell the war and create our “enemies” or at least make them the embodiment of evil.
• acquarius74 November 27th, 2009 at 8:54 pm «

  Thanks, shekissesfrogs. I visited the site at your link. It looks really interesting, but I’ll have to go there again when time allows me to study the texts as well as see the pictures.
4. shekissesfrogs November 26th, 2009 at 9:12 pm «

   …Later on Sunday night, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), went further during a television appearance.

   “We need to get to the point during this four-year legislative term that we are ready to talk about a potential exit strategy in Afghanistan. We don’t want to be there forever,” said Westerwelle.

   Westerwelle’s demand for a withdrawal plan within the next four years actually squared with that of the new CDU-FDP coalition’s old rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD).

   The FDP, the CDU and the SPD are all beginning to talk exit strategy, joining the an already vocal “pull-out now” faction represented by the Left party.

   The withdrawal debate in Germany is changing, and could be on a course that sees Germany getting out of Afghanistan earlier than many had thought.

   Rahm, Bam, and the corporate party aren’t going to be happy about this.
• fflambeau November 26th, 2009 at 9:18 pm «

  Great post, shekissesfrogs. Thanks much for that!
• fflambeau November 26th, 2009 at 9:40 pm «

  I edited the diary to include the important news you posted about, shekissesfrogs. Thanks so much (I also gave you a tip of the hat).
5. Hugh November 26th, 2009 at 10:00 pm «

   It would be interesting to know if the request for NATO troops was always for 10,000 or if this was a backdoor way to fill out the 34,000 Obama will send to make up the 40,000 McChrystal originally requested.
• ralphbon November 27th, 2009 at 4:41 am «

  Hey, Hugh. Have you added Obama’s refusal to sign the landmine treaty to your list?
6. fflambeau November 26th, 2009 at 10:03 pm «

   Good question, Hugh. You’ve got some more numbers for your list of Obama scandals with this and two people leaving his administration. Don’t forget too the administration horrific position taken recently on landmines: the US will be the only country in the world to NOT oppose them.
7. mafr November 27th, 2009 at 5:46 am «

   Great writing style,
   First rate work, thanks.
8. Jim White November 27th, 2009 at 6:14 am «

   Tremendous diary. Thanks especially for the translation work. Let’s hope that the reluctance in NATO (will the new Iraq intelligence revelations in the UK decrease their desire for an escalation, too?) will make Obama think some more before committing so many troops, even though all signs now are that he has made his decision. [Out by 2017, riiight...]
9. perris November 27th, 2009 at 6:25 am «

   a very important post, thanx for the info

   if it weren’t for the tubes we would get no international news, thanx for this heads up
10. Hugh November 27th, 2009 at 7:09 am «

    Fflambeau, ralphbon, I saw the story on landmines. I was hoping to find more rationale and specific cases as to why the Obama Administration won’t sign on.

    fflambeau, I have an entry on Craig’s departure (102). I have been debating whether to include the Carter resignation. I was hoping to see more reasons for his departure from him.

    Thanks for giving me the extra push on these. I will include both.
11. fflambeau November 27th, 2009 at 7:14 am «

    Hugh, Glenn Greenwald has quite a lot of information up about Craig’s departure. You might want to check his blog out. Keep up the good work with your most excellent list of Obama scandals-blunders. It deserves more publicity.
12. jim6669jim November 27th, 2009 at 7:16 am «

    Thanks for publishing this story. The MSM in the USA and UK are still trying to cover it up. None of them linked the F-15 video shown on bild.de.
13. fflambeau November 27th, 2009 at 7:30 am «

    BREAKING NEWS: Deutsche Welle (Germany’s equivalent of the BBC World Service) reports that former Defense Minister and Current Labor Minister Franz Josef Jung has resigned. Jung was at the center of the story of the coverup of civilian deaths in Afghanistan: the German army called for the air strikes which were carried out by the U.S. Air Force. More than 140 people died in the attacks, many of them civilians. Jung had at first claimed no civilians were killed in the attacks. It was the largest German military operation since World War II. Actual air footage of the attacks can be found on the Bild’s web site (link in the story) although the website is in German, if you follow the link you can clearly see the video clip of the bombing).

    Perhaps more importantly than the resignation, this news has rekindled questions in Germany of why the country is involved in Afghanistan and what the exit strategy is, if any. Germany has more than 4,000 troops in Afghanistan (3rd behind the USA, and the U.K.) and Obama has asked for more NATO troops. It will be interesting to see if Obama talks about this when he addresses the nation next week. I suspect he will sweep all of this kind of dissent under the carpet and lie about how united our allies are in the war on terror.
• shekissesfrogs November 28th, 2009 at 2:07 am «

  And Jung makes three! You need to highlight that!
  Only a few hours after he brushed off suggestions he would resign, he tendered his resignation.
• fflambeau November 28th, 2009 at 2:45 am «

  The way the software is on this web site, it is not possible to edit the story after a certain amount of time has passed (a few hours; I don’t know the exact amount of time). So, it was impossible to edit the story and add that information about Minister Jung resigning (predicted in the original story by the way). Regards.
14. Kassandra November 27th, 2009 at 7:36 am «

    I just don’t see how the folks on Mt Olympus can think of war with the American economy in such shambles. Do the politicians think really believe the lies that it was WWII that pulled America out of the last Great Depression?
    Is THIS how we wound up owing the entire world 90 trillion bucks?
    And when is somebody going to break the news that this war is all about the UNOCAL oil pipeline which won’t even benefit America since “W” give away all the oil concessions that were supposed to “pay for the Iraq war”?
    I don’t get the benefit of America paying for a war that benefits China, unless we really , truly have become the military arm of The New World Order.
    It seems the only state rationality left is in Europa
    GADS! What a mess!
• Nathan Aschbacher November 27th, 2009 at 8:28 am «

  I addressed this the last time you said it. If you map the route of the pipeline, and look at the configuration of our troop deployments, this doesn’t make any sense at all.

  The pipeline is also being funded by the Asian Development Bank, and its primary market is a means for Eastern Europe to get access to natural gas (not oil, I don’t know why you keep saying oil) without having to deal with Russia.

  We would be much more interested in the Trans-Caspian Pipeline (again for natural gas), that carries more volume, and is connected to larger fields than the Trans-Afghan Pipeline, but even that pipeline is of significant use to Western Europe; not the U.S.

  Absolutely nothing about this notion that we launched or maintain this war for the Trans-Afgan Pipeline makes any sense at all once one does any investigation into the claim.
• Kassandra November 27th, 2009 at 9:04 am «

  Must’ve missed it last time you posted…………
• lanacarson November 28th, 2009 at 11:21 pm «

  Kassandra thanks for the links on the pipeline. i just wish there was a way to get real accurate news and know what is really going on. So i appreciate your efforts. On one hand, i hear that we are trying to set ourselves up geographically to strategically oppose Russia and China. On the other hand, I hear that we are owned by China (and i have thought myself that we must be China’s military arm – not much of a New World order believer though.) However Peter Schiff laughs about how we won’t pay China back b/c “they can’t vote. why would we pay them back?” but i didn’t think voting carried too much weight here in america anyway. It’s all very confusing – are we China’s b*tch or are we trying to own them? But CHina seems to be able to get things done without military action whereas we do it constantly. I read an article entitled something like “War is America’s Main Export.” I tend to think that this is the real reason. I don’t know what America would do with itself if it were not a war machine spewing profits for a few corrupt elite (Halliburton et al.)
• Nathan Aschbacher November 28th, 2009 at 11:57 pm «

  Someone should point Peter Schiff to the work of Sec. Treasury George Humphrey during the Suez Crisis in 1956.

  We sure as hell didn’t have a seat in the British Parliament, but the fact that we essentially owned Britain’s financial viability gave us an incredibly mighty hand in keeping them from kicking off World War III along side France and Israel; without us ever firing a shot.

  Economic warfare is the way of the new world, the conventional military of the United States is just playing out its inferiority complex of having been rendered completely irrelevant with the advent of the nuclear bomb at precisely the same moment in history when it was reaching its preeminence.
15. jim6669jim November 27th, 2009 at 8:17 am «

    Apparently, when US forces get some R&R from defending the proposed pipeline route , they get a little out of control:
    http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/2009/09/04/kabul-us-embassy-sex-scandal/security-staff-in-perverse-naked-games-video.html
16. Kassandra November 27th, 2009 at 9:07 am «

    http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/oil_war.htm
    I do some research too, sir…..Its’ all over the place once you look for it.
    That State dinner with India had something to do with this, bet on it.
• Nathan Aschbacher November 27th, 2009 at 11:52 am «

  I don’t doubt the plan or existence of the Trans-Afghan Pipeline. I mapped its route here: US Troops Deployed to Protect Gas Pipeline?

  What I doubt is the supposition that this war is about that pipeline; in any capacity other than tangential.
• lanacarson November 28th, 2009 at 11:07 pm «

  Hi Nathan, i too read that article about Uzbekistan and pretty much believed it. I am interested in your mapping. I will read Kassandra’s links to see what they say.

  I know there is also a pipeline in Northern Africa in areas that happen to be Muslim. I bet we’ll have a new “front” on the war on terror in Africa soon.
17. Kassandra November 27th, 2009 at 9:09 am «

    Here’s some more:
    http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/112309b.html

    If You Say the Taliban = 9/11 Often Enough, Maybe Someone Will Believe It?

    By Greg Palast, GregPalast.com. Posted November 6, 2009.

    http://www.alternet.org/world/143767/if_you_say_the_taliban_%3D_9_11_often_enough,_maybe_someone_will_believe_it/
18. klynn November 27th, 2009 at 9:22 am «

    This is an interesting development. Especially on the heels of great pressure being put on Germany in the last two weeks regarding Iran sanctions and the US-Israeli seizure of two Germany shipping company boats in the last few months “supposedly” carrying arms from Iran but those darn shipping labels were evidently forgeries.

    Hmmm, a timeline would be interesting here.
• shekissesfrogs November 27th, 2009 at 11:19 am «

  That makes Israel the real pirates. Knocking out their competition in the arms merchant business and making up stuff to justify war.
19. Acharn November 28th, 2009 at 1:03 am «

    My only question is whether the military men actually “resigned”, which would imply giving up their pensions, or whether they retired earlier than they had originally planned to. Usually, by the time a general reaches the highest post in his military service he is also eligible for the highest pension he can earn. His only reason for staying on active service is (a) because he wants to serve his country with his hard-earned wisdom and experience, or (b) he wants more glory and medals. Here in the United States, soldiers do not resign (if anyone knows of a counter-example, I really want to hear about it). It’s even *very* rare for them to ask to be relieved of their command and take early retirement. I can’t think of one.
• ichbineinberliner November 28th, 2009 at 5:54 am «

  My only question is whether the military men actually “resigned”, which would imply giving up their pensions, or whether they retired earlier than they had originally planned to.

  Both were retired with pensions.

  Peter Wichert is a political civil servant with life-long tenure (“beamteter Staatssekretär“), he can be “temporarily retired” (“einstweiliger Ruhestand“) by the political leadership. In fact he was “temporarily retired” (with pensions) 2000-2005 during the SPD/Green administration.

  Generals and political civil servants can be retired quite easily by the cabinet, but to loose their pensions would require a conviction at a disciplinary court.
• fflambeau November 28th, 2009 at 6:10 pm «

  Great info, ichbineinberliner. Thanks for that!
20. fflambeau November 28th, 2009 at 3:21 am «

    The Guardian (U.K.) has an excellent story up online about these events. It is authored by Kate Connelly and entitled “Afghan mission in doubt as air raid lies force Minister to Resign”. The former German Defense Minister who then took the Labor Ministry, Jung, has resigned so that means three high-level resigntions in the past day or so in Germany. But the Guardian story indicates the fallout may not stop there as a German state prosecutor has started an investigation into the bombing event and could conceivably pursue it as a “war crime”:

    With an estimated two-thirds of the German public already against involvement, the defence ministry’s admission that it effectively lied by initially denying there were civilian casualties when two petrol tankers were bombed in September has left Angela Merkel’s recently re-elected centre-right government in a state of uncertainty over how to proceed in the region.

    …

    Video footage emerged yesterday of the botched air raid ordered by the German commander, Colonel Georg Klein, on the basis of a single piece of intelligence from an Afghan informant who was unable to see the vehicles. The video, leaked to the tabloid Bild, possibly in an attempt to influence a parliamentary decision on extending the German troop presence, prompted Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the new defence minister, to admit his ministry had at best withheld information and at worst lied about the deaths.

    The German government is coming under American pressure to increase its presence in the region – it has 4,500 troops there – and to prove it means to stay the course, without aggravating an already very negative public mood. Barrack Obama is expected to announce an increase in US troop numbers next week on the understanding that his allies will do the same.

    According to Nico Fried, a commentator with the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify the mission. “The reason for dispatching several thousand people to Afghanistan, which has to be based on trust in the political and military leadership, is crumbling.”

    The strike in Kunduz, in which Nato says 142 insurgents and an unknown number of civilians were killed after the Taliban seized the two tankers, reinforced the German public belief that their troops have been waging war, and not, as their politicians argue, working as a stabilising force.

    The €785 million a year (£712m) mission is Germany’s biggest overseas deployment since the second world war. The fallout over the Kunduz incident could prove to be hugely damaging, said Ulrich Kirsch, the chairman of the German army association, saying that attempts to mislead the public and politicians had “returned to the government benches like a boomerang”. He called for more transparency,

    …

    “Lies and deception are now overshadowing a mission that has always been difficult and is getting more so,” said Fried [Nico Fried]. Questions were now being asked more forcefully than ever before as to “why Germany should continue its involvement in Afghanistan after eight years”.

    Despite this week’s resignations the row is far from over. The state prosecutor has started an investigation and if it is decided that the airstrike broke international law it could be tried in a German court as a war crime.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/27/germany-afghanistan