Those Wacky Germans

Seems as if some folks in Germany want to raise a big stink about German military folks remaining in various NATO HQs during the Libyan operation.  This is a classic tale of folks either being ignorant or mendacious.  Of course, there are Germans at NATO HQs, as Germany has long been one of the big providers to NATO.  But Germany has clearly not been participating in operations--it has removed its people from AWACS planes that coordinate the strikes, there are no German planes flying in any part of the mission, and even the German navy has pretty much sailed in the opposite direction.  Indeed, Germany has lost a heap of political capital by ducking this operation even as it is fits with past German support of efforts in Kosovo, for instance. 

So, if folks want to get all Germans out of all NATO positions that have anything to do with Libya, then it does raise some questions about their intent--do they want Germany out of NATO?  Or do they want to score some points politically?  Given that it is the Green Party doing this, it could be a little of both.  In the distant past, the Greens were anti-NATO.  In the more recent past, the Greens were actually supporting Germany's participation in NATO.  Hmmmm.  Perhaps the party might be divided, but I am no expert on the Greens.*

*  Updated: A friend of mine essentially confirmed this.  That there are divisions within the Greens and that I am not no expert on the Greens ;)

The thing to keep in mind is that there is much more smoke here than fire.  Germany is not playing any role in this conflict for good or bad.  Any accusation to the contrary is either delusional or nit-picking.