gelbes_gilatier | Entries tagged with not a war

This is the German Armed Forces' newest image/recruiting video ad (the catch phrase is "Wir. Dienen. Deutschland."/"We. Serve. Germany." and though I don't really know what to make of the periods I'm slowly starting to warm up to the phrase.Very slowly. Maybe.) :

What do we think, people?

Good? Bad? Ridiculous?

(One thing that really shook me: the pictures of the official funerals. Even though it's aimed both and improving the image and recruiting, it took a lot of balls putting them in there. Any of you non-Germans ever seen something like that in any of your Armed Forces' recruiting ads?)

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Why? Why do I still try think up stuff of that?
Current Music: In the Electric Mist

I guess 9/11 is my generation's Kennedy assassination. We all knew where we were and what we did when we heard about the attacks. This is the story of where I was and what I did.

( Remember, remember, the Eleventh of September. )

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: Home, on the couch.
Current Music: The Parlotones - Come Back As Heroes | Powered by Last.fm

or at least contemplate ordering one from gelbe-schleife.de, Germany's equivalent to the (much bigger) Yellow Ribbon Campaign in the US, if you're a German and are tired of the "friendly desinterest" people here in Germany are giving the Armed Forces, the soldiers and most of all their deployments

Why am I saying this? Because fighting season is in full swing in Afghanistan now and today, another German soldier died in an IED attack. When I said "this is going to be a very bloody spring and summer", I honestly had no idea how true that would become. And I'm starting to get tired of people wholly disregarding Afghanistan and all the other deployments such as Kosovo, ATALANTA and countless other places that aren't even covered in the media (but German Wikipedia has a (very long) list of current deployments), so as a former soldier myself (and as a civilian not quite done with contemplating to join up again) this is my appeal to all of you: even if you are against the ISAF operation, even if you're against the military... don't be against the soldiers and their families. Yes, I'm asking you to support our troops. Just contemplate it, at least, please.

Current Mood: shocked
Current Location: Oh just fuck it.
Current Music: Blah.

Well. I'm officially revising everything about not being shocked about German soldiers dying in Afghanistan in my last post.

Why? Because of this: Afghanistan: suicide blast kills top police commander. There were also several ISAF casualties, ~~three~~ two of them German soldiers. It also appears as if RC-North commander Major General Markus Kneip (German Army) was wounded in the blast. ~~There are suspicions that the attack was aimed specifically at General Kneip and~~ Suspicions that General Kneip was the target of the attack turned out to be false but quite honestly, this... still weirds me out. I guess even after two or three years of German soldiers being part of open warfare, I just can't get used to them being targeted by insurgents.

For us, the deployment to Afghanistan was said to be soldiers building schools, not fighting a war and for at least seven or eight years "smile and wave" was the preferred Bundeswehr tactics and German soldiers were said to have a much better standing with the Afghan people than US soldiers, since they usually patrolled on foot and didn't drive half as aggressively as the Americans. Then Stanley McChrystal adopted "smile and wave" and German Army Colonel Klein ordered an air strike against two kidnapped tankers and suddenly everything seemd to have changed.

Hearing about the suicide attack that killed two major Afghan players in the war and ~~three~~ two German soldiers, I have to revise everything about not being shocked anymore. I'm appalled and I'm starting to fail in believing that anything will ever change in Afghanistan and I'm wondering how many more Afghans and ISAF soldiers will have to die until there will be something like peace in that country. I'm also standing by my assessment that killing Osama bin Laden did nothing to improve the situation but a lot to make everything worse. I'm afraid that this will be a very bloody spring and summer this year. And it makes me sad.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: Well. Not a work (for real, I swear!)
Current Music: Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms | Powered by Last.fm

I just read in my news RSS that another German soldier was killed in Afghanistan and to be honest, I was a little shocked about myself. Why? Because I wasn't shocked. Or at least not as shocked as I used to be about dead German soldiers in Afghanistan (remember, dead and wounded soldier are still something the German public rather rather remembers from WWII than from recent wars... for us, for a long time it used to be the others that died).

Instead I just sighed and wondered how for much longer this will have to go on before we'll see some actual positive results from soldiers of a plethora of nations fighting and dying in a country that has next to nothing to do with their country. Because, let's just be honest, in the ten years, ISAF has been there, they accomplished next to nothing. Insurgents still kill people, children still die of hunger, landmines and firefights, women still wear burqas... will things really change if the multinational coalition keeps fighting there? I honestly don't know.

In the meantime, however, it astounds and shocks me how little notice the German public really takes of German soldiers fighting in more than just one country (there's also Kosovo, the Horn of Africa, UNIFIL...). The only time they do is when one dies and even then it's only short-lived. It still makes me sad, mostly because I don't think it will ever change, even though it's been over 65 years since the end of WWII now. No one wants the jingoism and nationalism from WWI and the fascism and racism of WWII back but honestly... is it asked too much to take notice of all the countries several thousand German soldiers (and cops, too, BTW) are stationed in and fighting and sometimes even dying in, once in a while, people?

(today's title is presented to you by Theodor Fontane and means: "With thirteen thousand their trail they began./Only one man returned from Afghanistan.", from his poem The Tragedy of Afghanistan)

Current Mood: morose
Current Location: Why am I still trying to find cover locations?
Current Music: Oh, um, nothing.

So Osama's dead.

First thing I though was: "So... what?"

Second thing was: "Are they stupid? It's like a fucking hydra's head. Cut off one of them, you get three new ones."

( Please tell me you didn't all lose your brains over the death of that old man. )

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Now actually at home.
Current Music: Monty Python: Almost the Truth.

Who said Germany would send soldiers to Libya even despite foolishly abstaining from voting for a military invention? Who did? Who did?

That's right, I did! (here, to be precise)

And I was right, as not only daily Der Tagesspiegel but also weekly DIE ZEIT and MilBlogger Thomas Wiegold have confirmed (all in German, though). Apparently, the German government is preparing a parliament voting for a Bundeswehr mandate as part of a European EUFOR battlegroup to protect ships with aid goods for the Libyan people. Of course it's not a combat operation.

Mhmh. Yeah. Right.

Just like Afghanistan wasn't a combat operation. It was only about drilling wells and building girl schools. And now we ended up with over 40 KIA and WIA soldiers, several hundred PTSD afflicted soldiers and for the first time since WWII German soldiers have been involved in gunfights, repeatedly. We also had (and probably still have, no one really knows) Special Forces soldiers over there of whose operations (and probably also casualties) the public is almost fully oblivious of. It took the government almost ten years to call it a war but that's exactly what it is. And they were just there to help, they always told us. So... anyone who believes that this will be a quick in and out probably only for a few months humanitarian aid operation, raise your hands. Anyone? No one? Huh. Weird.

Current Mood: productive
Current Location: Smug. Most of all I'm kind of smug.
Current Music: Mom talking.

Today, the UN Security Council finally passed the NFZ resolution for Libya. As predicted, Germany who's currently a temporary member, abstained. This is so very embarrassing and a fucking bad idea that I don't even know where to start. This isn't like Iraq where Bush tried to push the allies into a war based on assumptions and downright lies and where the Iraqis for some reason were less than thrilled about being occupied by a super power and her allies... this is genuinely about the future and the freedom of an entire country and they'd hoped for this resolution for at least a month and what does my country do? They abstain. Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

( I'm a million miles away from happy, as Mr. John Birmingham wrote so nicely in Without Warning. )

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Location: On the Holy Couch of Seriously Being Pissed Off.
Current Music: Tropenwelt Karibik

Today, four German soldiers were killed near Baghlan in Afghanistan and the media released the news a few hours ago. While I was checking Twitter for more info on it, I came across a tweet from my former local party organisation's press representative, stating that tomorrow there would be protests during a welcome home muster for soldiers returning from their deployment to Afghanistan. It's going to be the same unit that lost soldiers last year in September (remember, losing soldiers in Afghanistan is still a major event, and we're only now starting to realize what it means to be at war - the country is still reeling from the shock of what happened on Good Friday).

( Hate the war, love the soldier... or at least don't HATE them as well. )

On a wholly unrelated note: OMG LEVERAGE SQUEE! All of you were right! Leverage is like... really, really cool. I'm currently watching S01E02 and I'm already in love with the high tech toys and Eliot and Parker (and kinda Eliot/Parker... what? I'm really fast with shipping...) and Hardison and Sophie and Nate (and a little bit Sophie/Nate... I'm not quite sold on it yet). Oh, and explosions! That's really all I need. Yay Leverage!

Also... finished watching EUReKA's Season 3 and... I DON'T WANT TESS TO GO! Tess can't go and let us all plunge back into Jack/Allison darkness! Jack/Allison doesn't make any sense at all. They don't fit and they don't even have real chemistry (they do work fine as friends but every time the writers try to steer them in a romantic direction it all goes poof)... it just doesn't work. Jack and Tess... clicked. Their sense of humor is compatible, the look cute together, when they fight the sparks fly... Also, Tess is awesome and would so deserve to be made a regular... don't take that away, please. Make it work, writers. PLEASE! (also, could someone please free me from that bothersome EUReKA/SGA crossover bunny involving both Tess and Cadman that keeps on bugging me? Seriously, if I ever start writing it you all should DUCK AND RUN!)

Oh, also... managed to kill my laptop's keyboard. Thank God for external keyboards and sisters' boyfriends' who happen to be IT geniuses (both hard- and software). 'Nuff said.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: Right after two eps of Leverage.
Current Music: Rio Reiser - Junimond | Powered by Last.fm