Rüdiger Lucassen
Bundeswehr
Mission in Iraq
German Bundestag,
January 15, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/139, p. 17382
[Rüdiger Lucassen is an Alternative für
Deutschland Bundestag member and the AfD chairman in the western German state
of Nordrhein-Westphalen, Germany’s most populous state. He is a businessman and retired
Bundeswehr officer.]
Herr President. Honorable colleagues.
The Federal government’s Iraq mandate was
from the beginning a false construction. In the text of the mandate, the Federal
government decorates itself with the military defeat of Isis – a success
achieved by regional combatants and the U.S. Air Force. The federal government
therein paints the future of the
multi-national state of Iraq in the brightest of colors, as if it were a
housing project of the AWO [worker welfare organization]. Yet it is not. Iraq
is a state construct without a functioning government, in which a dozen
militias scuffle and regional powers conduct a proxy war; a construct in which Iraqi
citizenship counts for nothing while adherence to religious affiliation and
clan is everything. A mandate that describes the situation on the ground so dishonestly
cannot function.
The federal government therein refers for the
umpteenth time to the request of the Iraqi government and the Iraqi parliament
that the Bundeswehr be allowed to train local security forces. It is the
central and only justification to which the Federal government refers for its
mandate, since a UN mandate or at least a common NATO mission fails to
materialize. This justification was renounced by the Iraqi parliament.
Therefore, the Federal government must immediately end our soldiers’ mission in
Iraq.
In committee, the government and the CDU/CSU
delegation have already indicated what they think of the Iraqi parliament. The
decision they refer to as a “recommendation.” Further, it is not the parliament
that is competent but the Iraqi emergency government. And generally, according
to the taste of the CDU/CSU, there were too few members at the vote – a situation
that here in the Bundestag does not trouble most of you.
Henning Otte
(CDU/CSU): Look for once at the constitution of the country of Iraq and do not
tell tales! Here is the translation!
Ladies and gentlemen, the parliamentary
participation law permits the German Bundestag to withdraw from the government
the Bundeswehr’s mandate for a foreign mission. In this case, it is not only a
right but a duty: The duty to dispatch our soldiers only on legally based
missions.
Alexander
Lambsdorff (FDP): It has always been thus. You have even said so yourself. You
are contradicting yourself!
Already three months ago, my delegation voted
unanimously against the Iraq mission, as did the Greens and the Linke; and the
FDP voted as one against it and ten members of the SDP.
Alexander
Lambsdorff (FDP): On completely different grounds, Herr Lucassen!
Daniela
De Ridder (SPD): But not on the same grounds!
The situation in Iraq since then has worsened
dramatically. Iran last week fired intermediate-range missiles at military
support points of the coalition. Intercept systems are not at hand. Local
terrorist units can perpetrate attacks at any time on foreign troop
contingents. Yet our soldiers on the ground are not equipped for that.
Now is the time for our parliament to make use
of its control function. If budget appropriations are the sovereign right of the
parliament, then the sovereign duty is the control of the government concerning
the foreign missions of our soldiers. We must not forget namely one thing: It
is the young men and women in uniform who must run to the bunkers because they must
protect themselves from the Iranian rockets. It is the young men and women who
must bear the risk of being attacked by internal perpetrators or militia. And
this parliament must then answer the question: Was it worth it? That is far
more than a yellow ribbon on the lapel. I therefore demand that you do your
duty as members, bring our soldiers back home –
Henning
Otte (CDU/CSU): You certainly must not do that! We surely know that!
– and withdraw the mandate from the
government.
Thanks.
Alexander
Lambsdorff (FDP): You do not define what our duty is! Nothing!
[Translated
by Todd Martin]
