German Opposition to Afghan Fight Grows as NATO Calls for More

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- More than two-thirds of German voters want the country’s military to pull out of Afghanistan as soon as possible, adding pressure to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government as it fields NATO calls to send additional troops.

Sixty-nine percent of 1,000 voters polled want a quick withdrawal, up 12 percentage points from September, according to an Infratest dimap poll for ARD television released today. Support for Germany’s mission dropped 10 points to 27 percent.

The poll was taken three days after the resignation from Merkel’s Cabinet of Franz Josef Jung, part of the fallout from a Sept. 4 air strike in northern Afghanistan that killed as many as 142 people. A leaked report published in Bild newspaper suggested that information about civilian casualties had been withheld, belying Jung’s initial claims when defense minister that the German-ordered attack had killed only militants.

The bombing in Kunduz province has overshadowed the debate in Germany about whether to increase its contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission in response to President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 additional combat troops.

Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Jung’s successor in Merkel’s five-week-old government, told lawmakers yesterday that the commander who ordered the strike had erred, reversing his earlier position in light of the report. While he stood by the commander, Colonel Georg Klein, for protecting his soldiers, the order was “militarily inappropriate.”

No Confidence

The ARD poll suggested the flap has had a negative impact on voters, with 77 percent saying they have no confidence in the government’s communications strategy on Afghanistan. Nineteen percent said the withholding of information over the air strike was an isolated incident.

Germany’s lower house of parliament yesterday extended the mandate for the Afghan mission by a year to the end of 2010, for now maintaining the maximum number of troops at 4,500. Merkel’s government has said it will take the next eight weeks before a Jan. 28 conference to decide whether to send additional troops.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told lawmakers that the London meeting on Afghanistan must not become a “troop deployment conference.” Westerwelle said earlier this week that Germany may step up police training in Afghanistan while welcoming Obama’s 2011 target date to begin withdrawal as a confirmation of German aims to bring the mission to a close within the next four years.

The ARD poll was taken Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 and has a margin of error as much as 3.1 percent.

Source: bloomberg.com/