When Silence Isn't Enough

Germany has been noticably reticent about fighting--even in the "good war" of Afghanistan that is only "good" officially among America's Left. Our right supports this war as much as Iraq, and Europeans and Canadian public opinion does not support the fight in Afghanistan. Our Left will stop supporting the Afghan campaign sometime around January 2009, as a guess.

So a report that German special forces have sat out the war in Afghanistan as much as their regulars is no shock:

GERMANY has admitted its Special Forces have spent three years in Afghanistan without doing a single mission, and are now going to be withdrawn.

More than 100 soldiers from the elite Kommando Spezialkrafte regiment, or KSK, are set to leave the war-torn country after their foreign minister revealed they had never left their bases on an operation.

This is too easy to believe. Call me an idealist, but even though I've complained about Germany's war tourism by sending troops to Afghansitan who will not fight, I don't believe that Germany's KSK spent three years in Afghanistan playing HALO, lifting weights, ironing their uniforms, and watching every other special forces outfit in the world conduct missions.

I think the Germans were out in the field these past three years, but that the KSK are taking a spear in the chest to cover their politicians who officially oppose fighting in Afghanistan. Other special forces get to just remain silent. Our German friends don't get that luxury.

So based on nothing more than a guess, I thank the KSK for their service in Afghanistan. I'm sorry that your exploits have to be denied and that your last Afghanistan mission is posing as a bunch of pansies too timid to fight.

But that's the sort of men you are. Mission first. Your exploits will be known only among your comrades in the special forces community for many years until it is safe to disclose your real missions.