[Weekly Standard] Ulf Gartzke - After weeks of intense political debate, the German government plans to send naval forces in support of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. This decision clearly excludes the deployment of German combat ground troops inside Lebanon. It seems likely that the forces will primarily be tasked with interdicting arms shipments for Hizballah. In addition, Beirut has asked Berlin to train Lebanese police and customs agents, who could then patrol airports as well as the border with Syria. The deployment of naval and police forces away from the Lebanese-Israeli border makes it virtually impossible that German soldiers could ever face a situation where they would shoot at Israeli units. The writer is a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University's BMW Center for German and European Studies.
2006-08-24 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive