The Front Lines: Germany's Difficult Year in Africa and Afghanistan --- It won't be an easy year for new Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. The German military is facing a new mission in Africa while at the same time orchestrating a challenging withdrawal from war-torn Afghanistan. Potential pitfalls are numerous. -- Domröse, the highest-ranking German NATO officer, didn't have much good news for the new minister. The situation in Afghanistan, he said, was tense three months before the presidential election in April. He also voiced his concern about the withdrawal of German troops because it remains unclear whether the Bundeswehr, the German military, will contribute up to 800 soldiers to a planned training mission in Afghanistan starting in 2015 after the withdrawal has been completed. First, US President Barack Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai must come to an agreement on the ensuing mission -- and such an agreement is nowhere in sight. -- Domröse warned the minister that every passing day without a decision makes it harder for NATO to plan the mission. And if no troop agreement is reached with Kabul, the Bundeswehr will have to make a complete withdrawal. --- Berlin is concerned that the US could limit its presence to a minimal force in Kabul, if they stay at all. "In such a situation, we and our partner countries in the north (of Afghanistan) would be the losers," Jäger wrote. Civilian development cooperation would also suffer, he noted. "We have to prevent that." -- Planners have begun considering every scenario as they prepare for the coming months, including the "Zero Option," as a complete withdrawal is referred to. All countries with troops in Afghanistan have begun reducing the size of their contingents. Every day, oversized cargo planes full of weapons, vehicles and other materiel take off from Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and Kandahar on their way home. Should the order come for a complete withdrawal, the Bundeswehr would need several million euros for additional transport capabilities, General Domröse told Defense Minister von der Leyen in their meeting earlier this month. --- US intelligence has already forecast what the consequences of a complete withdrawal and a cessation of the billions of dollars in aid payments would be. A 2013 National Intelligence Estimate, compiled by all 16 US intelligence agencies, notes: "The complete loss of financial assistance would accelerate devolution to an unmanageable pace." It says that "by 2017, the Taliban would probably control nearly all of the south and east and would contest the Kabul area." - More, Der Spiegel, at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-military-faces-a-difficult-year-in-africa-and-afghanistan-a-944553.html