“He is the corpse clutching the pocket guide.” Or so the joke goes in Afghanistan. This is because, up until recently, German soldiers serving there were obligated by German political directives issued in Berlin to pull out a pocket guide and give the warning, in three languages (English, Pashtu and Dari) “United Nations – stop, or I will fire!” before returning fire when attacked by the Taliban.

This is supposed to reduce misunderstandings and keep anybody from getting hurt, especially the Taliban. But times change and even German politicians are lernfähig (can learn from their mistakes) – just go ask Ulla Schmidt – so now new rules of engagement have been released in which German forces will actually be allowed to shoot back at those shooting at them and shout out warnings later. Not that they will actually do that or anything, we don’t want any misunderstandings here you know, but still.

“The warnings were well intended but not realistic.”