US plans to withdraw some of their ground troops from Syria continue to
advance, and US officials made clear over the weekend that those plans would be far more convenient if Germany sent some ground troops into Syria to replace the Americans.
Germany, however, announced on Monday that they will not be sending any
ground troops. Spokesman Steffan Seibert said Germany will continue to
contribute to anti-ISIS operations, but that the framework of the coalition has always made clear that wouldn’t include German ground troops.
US officials were keen to push Germany on the deployment, because
President Trump wants them spending more on their military. Officials
argued that the deployments could be presented as “non-combat” troops to
avoid controversy within Germany.
That’s clearly not the way it works, however. German officials were
quick to say that sending troops to Syria would almost certainly be
illegal, given post-WW2 laws intended to limit Germany’s engaging in
overseas adventures.
German MPs are seen as broadly against expanding the Syrian operation to
include ground troops, and between legal restrictions that the German
government actually follows and a parliament that actually gets
consulted, there was just no way German Chancellor Angela Merkel was
going to be able to send troops even if she was so inclined.
Bravo, Germany! I’m glad you rejected US demands for ground troops in Syria. That was a very intelligent move on your part. The only ground troops that were invited by the Syrian govt under Bashar Assad are from Russia and Iran, no one else. All the other foreign troops in Syria have NOT been invited and must leave .. This includes the US, Britain and France.
All foreign troops in Syria must withdraw from that country, except for Russia and Iran, the only forces that were invited. Germany must be applauded for rejecting US demands to send ground troops into Syria, and the US must pull out or suffer the consequences of being forced out .. the same with other invader countries. NO EXCUSES.
Good to see the Europeans carving out their own futures rather than being mere puppets of the bullying US Hegemon. Without a “coalition of the willing”, the US may also think twice about its endless illegal interventions and regime changes overseas.
That’s clearly not the way it works, however. German officials were quick to say that sending troops to Syria would almost certainly be illegal, given post-WW2 laws intended to limit Germany’s engaging in overseas adventures.
The US/Brit/French occupation is already illegal under International law, not that it seems to matter anymore.
Plenty of other puppets to pick up the slack – Australia, Canada, UK, Denmark, etc.
Germany can’t send any troops to Syria because they’ll need them for the influx of refugees (some ISIS) that entered their country because of the destabilization.