Only one member of the German Bundestag out of 614 parliamentarians is in favor of putting the 2,900 German troops in Afghanistan in harm's way, or at least willing to say so publicly.
Hans-Ulrich Klose, a Social Democrat, vice chairman of the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee, says a total of six think the way he does but won't say so publicly. That leaves 608 representatives of the German people opposed to German soldiers deserting their Salvation Army mode of operations and joining U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers now doing all the fighting against Taliban guerrillas.
The German cop-out is, of course, a reflection of the nightmare history of World War II and the subliminal notion Germans have that the Americans and the British can handle out-of-NATO-theater operations and keep them safe. French, Spanish, Italian and Turkish parliaments have also …