It is ironic that, on the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, we should be reviewing an article in Der Spiegel which catalogues a tale of woe concerning the dire state of the German military in Afghanistan. How the mighty have fallen, one might observe.
In a dreadfully familiar litany, we hear that "German Troops Bemoan 'Criticial' Deficits in Training and Equipment", with "damning reports" emerging from the forces in Afghanistan, claiming that cooperation with civilian agencies is abysmal, equipment is lacking and training is insufficient.
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You have to give the Chief of the Defence Staff some credit – his sense of timing is immaculate. No sooner does he go live on the MoD website telling us that "the UK strategy in Afghanistan is the right one," up pops General Stanley McChrystal to tells us that the coalition strategy in Afghanistan is failing.
Interestingly, Michael Yon has just published a new post. We'll review it later today. But what immediately leaps from his post is this statement:
The Pentagon and MoD as a whole cannot be trusted because they are the average of their parts. There are individual officers and NCOs among the US and UK who have always been blunt and honest with me. Among the higher ranking, Petraeus and Mellinger come to mind, but for day-to-day realities this is where it's at. Out here. Nothing coming from Kabul, London, or Washington should be trusted.You don't have to go all the way out to Afghanistan to find that out. We worked that out all for ourselves. But you can now see why Yon was kicked out of Sangin.
UPDATE: Yon's post reviewed here.
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