by David Barnwell
Tough questioning has become somewhat of a theme of this year’s NATO Afghan Students Forum. Tuesday morning’s session in the German Bundeskanzleramt was no exception.
On the second day of this year’s NATO Afghan Students Forum, the participants were sent into the November-cold streets of Berlin for a short walk and a swift visit at the Deutsche Bundeskanzleramt, administration site of the German involvement in the NATO operation in Afghanistan.
According to official numbers, Germany currently contributes to the ISAF joint effort with some 4050 troops, with 1000 more to come. Almost all are deployed in the northern, relatively quiet provinces of Feyazabad and Konduz.
Still, there was nothing quiet about today’s session.
Facing an opportunity to question government and NATO officials about Germany’s role in this controversial operation, participants thus quickly shook off the cold Berlin morning air, and started asking those tough questions that have already come to mark this year’s Forum.
One participant, for example, wanted to know why yesterday’s commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the Mauerfall didn’t have as much as a single reference to the Afghan resistance to Soviet hostility in the 80s. Another wanted to know why it is said that insurgent soldiers are tougher than Europeans, and yet another argued keenly that the Afghan reluctance to see Russian soldiers enter the country could threaten the outcome of the operation itself. And one simply wanted to know if the officials considered the German efforts in Afghanistan to be – after all – a success or not.
“This is a special group of young people” one of the invited officials, Martin Krüger of the German military, told Orange shortly after his session.
“They have the expertise and local networks we need, and we can hope for a chain-effect if we can get them into dialogue” he said.
And a dialogue was certainly what he got.
Reflecting upon the hard-lining approach taken by many of the participants, he later concluded:
“I fully understand why many of them are critical. It is a slow development, and I can see why some may have doubts about what we do, and question whether we will succeed or not. But I honestly believe that we will, and that this aim itself will be worth all the trouble in the end”.
Worth it or not, one thing is for sure – when it comes to Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan, nothing will go by unquestioned.
