Adventures of War without Strategy
Bernd Riexinger, chair of the party DIE LINKE: The military intervention in Syria will irrevocably change German society and have an impact on the daily life of the people in Germany.
The federal government rushes Germany in a war without sorting out the question about allies on the ground. There is no perception about other consequences as well. The federal government does not define a precise aim. That is why there is neither an end of the intervention nor the amount of associated costs foreseeable.
It speaks volumes, by the way, that even the Bundeswehr expresses doubts about the governments' line of action. Germany thus partakes in a war which will take years, kill thousands of innocent women, children, and men and will cost hundreds of millions of euros. Representatives of the Christian Democrats already speaking of extending the battle zone to Libya, Jordan, and the Libanon makes me gobsmacked. The security of the European people must not be sacrificed to some military great power fantasies.
Terror cannot be defeated militarily. The record of the "War on Terror" with thousands of casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, or Pakistan since 2001 teaches one thing: war did not check, let alone end the terror. Instead, more and more terror developed. Every civilian that is killed fuels the hate against the West and new terrorists emerge. We need to get out of this spiral of violence. Unfortunately, the federal government has no intent to do so. IS cannot be bombed away. To fight it, we consequently have to prohibit any supply of arms and fighters as well as its funding. All arms exports to the region need to be stopped, cooperation with the major terror sponsors Saudi-Arabia and the Gulf States has to end, and Turkey needs to be brought to eventually close the border to Syria for any IS support.
While the governments in Berlin, Paris, Washington, Moscow, and elsewhere spend billions to intervene militarily in Syria and Iraq, there is no money for refugees in and from these countries.
Within one week more than 130 million euro have been allocated for tornados, frigates, and military satellites - why isn't done more for refugees? The order of priorities has to be changed fundametally, no more armament and foreign assignments - instead politicis orientied towards the needs of the civilian population.