hebig.org/blog
personal webnode of Haiko Hebig

Two German security personnel have been killed in Iraq days ago, and still, there is no offical statement of the German government. What's going on? Why the long silence?

I assume there are already covert actions taking place to bring the two bodies home, though such actions are likely to be very complicated. Specialized forces to take or liberate hostages (or to liberate bodies, or anything not too large and not too heavy, that is) in war situations are part of the army, and image the implications if something goes wrong while employing such forces in a nation you never ever wanted to go in. Even if you use similar forces that are politically more compatible, like those attached to the police or border patrol, you still can't just walk into an area with a rebel insurrection raging, take what you want and go home again.

With our government remaining silent, we could assume that it is not able to secure German citizens in crisis situations. Sounds a bit like Rwanda, where Belgian paratroopers had to bring home German technicians trapped in a Deutsche Welle transmitter site during the Tutsi genocide - because Germany lacked the resources to do it without external help. Now we have them, and see how complicated it can be on a political level to employ them.