So I think it goes like this: After a German officer called in a “reconstruction and peacekeeping” airstrike on fuel trucks stolen by the Taliban in a non-war they are taking part in in northern Afghanistan, no civilians at all were killed. Then later, of course, they were.

As long as this isn’t a war, things like this are bound to keep on happening. Further resignations and German-speak like this, I mean.

“Politicians have consistently failed to convince Germans that there is a clear and sound strategy in place for the Nato mission.

Even as militants stepped up attacks on German soldiers in northern Afghanistan ministers refused to refer to what was happening there as a ‘war’

They continued to fall back on the more sanitised line that German troops were involved in a  ‘reconstruction and peacekeeping’ mission.”

“But two-thirds of the German public want German troops out of Afghanistan. And following September’s airstrike in Kunduz, the calls for the soldiers to be pulled out have grown even louder.”

In principle, I guess. But actually, well, not really.

“At issue are how long opposition in Germany will allow its troops to stay and fight, and whether they will be given leeway from their strict rules of engagement to pursue the kind of counterinsurgency being advocated by American generals. The question now is whether the Americans will ultimately fight one kind of war and their allies another.”

“The Germans may not have gone to war, but now the war has come to them. In part, NATO and German officials say, that is evidence of the political astuteness of Taliban and Qaeda leaders, who are aware of the opposition in Germany to the war. They hope to exploit it and force the withdrawal of German soldiers — splintering the NATO alliance in the process — through attacks on German personnel in Afghanistan and through video and audio threats of terrorist attacks on the home front before the German elections last month.”

“American officials have argued that an emphasis on reconstruction, peacekeeping and the avoidance of violence may have given the Taliban a foothold to return to the north.”

“Germany’s combat troops are caught in the middle.”

“They shoot at us and we shoot back.”

“With the jihadi chatter against Berlin intensifying less than three weeks before general elections, the fear is that Islamists bent on driving NATO forces out of Afghanistan will  attack the supposedly weakest link in the chain of Western nations.”

“Skepticism about the deployment runs deep within Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens, and calls for a reduction in German troop levels could increase if these parties join the Left in opposition after the election, as some polls suggest.”

“This is in retaliation for Germany always pointing the finger at other nations.”