Who’s in charge here? (Part 2) – Germany pulls forces out of Mediterranean NATO presence

As a follow up to Jim’s post this morning, I’m kind of wondering why the United States media machine is not covering – at all it seems – the fact that Germany pulled forces out of NATO in fear they would be drawn into the conflict with Libya.

Update: As noted in the comments, Germany pulled forces out of the NATO group supporting general operations in the Mediterranean. The title of the post has been updated to clarify. If NATO does take control of efforts in Libya, I’m not sure if Germany – as a NATO member – would be required to support the efforts.

Germany has ordered two frigates and AWACS surveillance plane crews out of the Mediterranean area within the last 24 hours. The Daily Mail had posted the story more than 12 hours ago and there seems to be nothing on FoxNews.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com or ABCNews.com. (Granted, I have not looked everywhere.)

From The Daily Mail.

Deep divisions between allied forces currently bombing Libya worsened today as the German military announced it was pulling forces out of NATO over continued disagreement on who will lead the campaign.

A German military spokesman said it was recalling two frigates and AWACS surveillance plane crews from the Mediterranean, after fears they would be drawn into the conflict if NATO takes over control from the U.S.

They don’t want NATO to take control, and they abstained on the UN vote about Libya.

In a bid to halt the embarrassing bickering, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe today proposed a new war committee to oversee operations.

The new body, Mr Juppe said, would bring together foreign ministers of participating states – such as Britain, France and the U.S. – as well as the Arab League.

The UN proves worthless again.

The Obama’s enjoyed a nice dinner party with wine in Chile. I’ll admit I have not been able to keep on top of this story at all, but does this coalition seem to be a total and complete mess to you?

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

11 Comments

  1. sammy22 on March 23, 2011 at 10:31 am

    What I read, in the Italian press as well, is that Germany has withdrawn its forces in the NATO contingent that is engaged in Libya. Not the same as "Germany pulls forces out of NATO". Germany still has forces that are in Afghanistan as part of the NATO contingent.



    • Steve M on March 23, 2011 at 10:54 am

      You are correct, and I mentioned it in paragraph two but will update the post to clarify.



  2. RoBrDona on March 23, 2011 at 11:10 am

    Operation Unified Protector????  Most interesting as a continuation of the complete lack of German gratitude for decades of military support (at our cost) that effectively protected their nation-state up until the end of the Cold War.  The French have been nosing around for a diplomatic coup for a while and I suspect Juppe will not let go of a leadership role, making everyone remaining inthe coalition insane.  Notice that a whole raft of NATO countries have been completely silent? I would add, an interesting microcosm of the unravelling of the EU.



  3. Plainvillian on March 23, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    Is it possible the Germans question how bombing and strafing can be humanitarian missions as Mr. Obama defines them?  Or is it possible Germany understands their national interests are in no way involved in the Libyan  civil war?  Lastly, does Germany finally see the real value of UN, NATO and the EU?



  4. GdavidH on March 23, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    Preemptive face saving.

    ?This Libya thing has the potential to get embarrassing with all the un-knowns involved. When 3 or?4?of your friends are already puttin’ a beatdown on?a neighborhood?bully……



  5. Marilyn on March 24, 2011 at 2:24 am

    Foreign ministers from participating  "STATES" such as Britain, France, and the US.  There they go with that one World Crap again.   Most families of 4 can't agree on what to have for dinner and these "STATES"  are going to agree on what, when, where, who, how to bomb or not to bomb.  Rookies!



  6. steve g on March 24, 2011 at 2:51 am

    so sick of  military bull action, without any definition of 'success'.  Jim, I agree with you about our dedicated young men & women in uniform.  But the top military 'brass' are not always on our side.

    Did anyone ever stop to think that the military leaders "have no life" -life, without war and destruction. Has anyone out there read the book 'In harms way'?

    The rest of the world sees the US as imperialist or crusaders.  World police we are not. For goodness sake. WHEN WILL WE LEARN?

     



  7. Whiteshadow on March 24, 2011 at 5:22 am

    If memory serve, we are targeting terrorist Osama Bin Laden and terrorist al-awacki, why not terrorist Quaddifi?



  8. sammy22 on March 24, 2011 at 6:26 am

    If we want to be the world's police, we have to ready to accept consequences. Some people see our actions as self-serving, and they have a point.



  9. PatRiot on March 24, 2011 at 7:04 am

    As Winston Churchill once said( I paraphrase):  Everybody wants to rule the world, but nobody wants the responsibility that comes with it.

     



  10. PatRiot on March 24, 2011 at 7:07 am

    Perhaps Germany thought "It's all fun and games until civil unrest happens in your own country."

    We would have been better off dropping copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence on Libya, begining with the royal palace. 



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