Left Party comes to the aid of German government

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Following massacre in Kunduz
Left Party comes to the aid of German government
12 September 2009

Last week’s deadly bombing of dozens of Afghan civilians in Kunduz on
the orders of a German commander has provoked a severe crisis for the
German government just two weeks before national elections. The
government had sought to keep the Afghan war out of the election
campaign, but the public uproar over the Kunduz massacre has now made
this impossible.

On Tuesday, the parliament (Bundestag) held a special debate on
Afghanistan. The governing grand coalition parties—the Christian
Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD)—used the
occasion to declare their unwavering support for the German military
mission in Afghanistan, in general, and for the order given by the
German commander in Kunduz, in particular.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of the CDU said she would not tolerate any
criticism “at home or abroad” of the activities of German forces in
the region. Her comments were echoed by the SPD foreign minister and
vice chancellor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who warned against
“premature judgments” regarding the conduct of German troops in
Afghanistan. The opposition Green Party and Free Democratic Party
closed ranks with the government.

On the same day as the Bundestag debate, German Defence Minister Franz
Josef Jung led an official ceremony to inaugurate a new memorial
commemorating German soldiers who died in war. This is the first time
since the Nazi atrocities in World War II that a German government has
dared erect such a monument.

Thus, the response to the Kunduz massacre of the German government,
opposition parties, and the military high command has been to launch a
renewed offensive on behalf of German militarism.

Only hours after the Bundestag debate, the Left Party held a rally at
Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate under the slogan: “Stop the bombing—Get out
of Afghanistan.” This slogan, however, was a fraud. The real purpose
of the rally was to head off popular opposition to the war and signal
the Left Party’s support for German imperialism.

The rally was held on short notice, and the Left Party leadership made
no attempt to mobilise popular anti-war sentiment. But while the
turnout was small—about 500—reporters and camera teams were plentiful.
It was clear that the Left Party had called the rally to provide
itself a platform from which it could send a signal to the governing
parties and the German ruling class. The message was: We are prepared
to support a new strategy for pursuing the war in Afghanistan.

Concerned that developments in Afghanistan could undermine German
international interests, the Left Party was offering its advice on a
more effective imperialist foreign policy and the means to sell it to
the German population.

The main speaker at the rally, party Co-Chairman Oskar Lafontaine,
made clear that the Left Party was dropping its previous call for the
immediate withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan. He declared
that what was needed was a “solution at least comparable to that laid
down by the Canadian government,” and added, “We need a date for a
complete withdrawal of troops.”

Lafontaine’s advocacy of the Canadian policy in Afghanistan echoes
none other than US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who recently lauded
Canada as the US’s closest ally in the country.

In reality, the Canadian government’s pledge to remove its troops by
2011 is a cynical maneuver aimed at quelling mass anti-war sentiment
and growing demands for an immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops.
Nor is there the slightest guarantee that the government will not
renege on its promise. It has already extended its presence in
Afghanistan on two previous occasions.

Lafontaine proposes that the German government adopt the “Canadian
solution” precisely to quiet mounting domestic opposition to the war
and enable German troops to remain in Afghanistan.

In his speech, Lafontaine took care to place his criticisms of current
official policy in Afghanistan within the framework of patriotic
support for the foreign and domestic interests of the German
bourgeoisie. He cited leading German military and security officials
who have publicly warned that the deployment of the army in
Afghanistan has only increased the danger of terror attacks in
Germany. “We are not protecting our country,” he declared.

Similar political signals have been sent by other leading members of
the Left Party. In an interview with Junge Welt on the day of the
Berlin rally, the head of the party’s parliamentary fraction, Dagmar
Enkelmann, declared that her party was seeking “a broad public
discussion of an exit strategy.”

Anyone familiar with the American intervention in Iraq will understand
the significance of this term. “Exit strategy” is a political
euphemism for keeping troops there indefinitely.

Using the argument that an immediate withdrawal of troops would result
in “chaos,” supporters of the Iraq war argued in favour of an “exit
strategy.” The “exit strategy” developed by the Obama administration
involves the retention of tens of thousands of US regular and
irregular troops and the maintenance of permanent military bases in
the country.

The colonial occupation of Iraq to secure US imperialist interests
continues in a somewhat different form, allowing Washington to
concentrate on its preferred war front—Afghanistan and Pakistan.

That the Left Party supports a similar solution for Afghanistan is
underscored by Enkelmann’s endorsement in the Junge Welt interview of
the call made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown for a United Nations conference on Afghanistan,
dubbed the “exit strategy summit.”

The purpose of such a conference would not be to end the war in
Afghanistan, nor to create conditions for troop withdrawals, but
rather to acquire additional international support and the imprimatur
of the UN for an illegal and increasingly unpopular war. A
UN-sponsored “exit strategy” would likely involve sending more troops
to the country.

As the US security think tank Stratfor wrote: “European leaders are
considering an exit strategy from Afghanistan that includes a
short-term plan to send additional troops to train up Afghans to
defend themselves, and a long-term goal of withdrawal by a mutually
agreeable date.”

Lafontaine, the Left Party and influential layers of the German
bourgeoisie regard such an “exit strategy conference” as a means of
shifting control over the US-led NATO operation towards the European
powers—above all, Germany.

Support for a different form of military intervention was expressed by
another Left Party leader, Dietmar Bartsch, at a press conference held
the day before the Brandenburg Gate rally. Bartsch called for an
alternative strategy based on increased civil engagement and more
rapid training of local Afghan police by German police officers.

The arguments put forward by Barsch and Enkelmann for an “exit
strategy” in Afghanistan—”rebuilding the country,” “concentration on
civilian engagement,” “training of local security forces”—eerily
recall the reasons given by the Social Democratic Party and the Greens
for sending troops to Afghanistan in the first place in 2003.

The Left Party is being feted by influential sections of the German
media and bourgeois political circles. As the September 27 date for
the federal election approaches, there is a growing choir of voices
proclaiming that the Left Party has sufficiently demonstrated its
trustworthiness on domestic issues. In particular, it has helped carry
out sweeping social cuts in the course of its coalition administration
with the SPD in the capital city of Berlin.

To advance towards becoming part of a ruling coalition at the federal
level, the Left Party must also prove that it can reliably defend
German imperialist interests abroad. It is in this connection that one
must view the change in line on Afghanistan being carried out by
Lafontaine and the Left Party.

Stefan Steinberg

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/pers-s12.shtml

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