Gates Sends “Unusually Stern” Letter To Germany About Afghansitan
(AFP) - US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has sent an “unusually stern” letter to Germany’s defence minister asking the country to send more troops to southern Afghanistan, a German newspaper reported Thursday.
According to Suddeutsche Zeitung, the undated letter was sent a week and half ago directly to Franz Josef, demanding more combat troops, helicopters and parachutists.
Josef in turn wasted no time in responding with a similarly “direct and stern” letter, the paper said, without quoting the letters directly, ahead of full publication on Friday.
NATO troop deployments have become an increasingly sore point of contention between the two countries.
Gates’ letter demanded 3,200 German troops to replace US soldiers later this year, the paper said.
NATO defence ministers meet in Vilnius next week. There are currently 42,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, but the organisation wants a further 7,500 reinforcements to join combat missions in the south.
Germany currently has 3,200 troops deployed in Afghanistan, around the capital Kabul and in the relatively calm north.
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Mach schnell!!!
January 31st, 2008 at 2:41 pmWho would have ever guessed that the vaunted Wehrmacht would one day be extinct. Looks like the Germans have been thoroughly deprogrammed now.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:57 pm“and parachutists”
That strikes me as being funny…Germany has issues
January 31st, 2008 at 6:21 pmparachutists
Their version of airborne.
Whose reading the signs of the times?
January 31st, 2008 at 7:34 pmI’ve talked to some of their luftwaffe boys before, they’re certainly not deprogrammed. They’re all about getting into the fight.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:43 am