United Press International,
KEHL AM RHEIN, Germany: The German armed forces, once limited to securing domestic territory, have undergone a startling transformation over the past seven years. The governing coalition of Social Democrats and Alliance 90/Greens, despite its anti-military track record, has extended the Budeswehr's arm as far as the Balkans, Africa and Afghanistan.
“The decision of SPD and Greens to send German troops into the Kosovo in 1998 has transformed the Bundeswehr,” Benjamin Schreer, military expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a Berlin-based think tank, said Tuesday in a telephone interview with United Press International. “The Bundeswehr is now operating on a global scale.”
According to Germany's defense ministry, about 7,000 soldiers are serving in missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kosovo and Sudan, making Germany one of the top contributors to international missions.
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