100 instructors against 'Islamic State'?

There they stand, the foreign minister and the defense minister, looking very serious as they speak to the cameras of the dozens of journalists surrounding them. Put a stop to the inconceivable barbarity of the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS), don't look away, give help and support to those who are resisting the barbarity, the horror, and slaughter. Germany is providing help and support - that's the credo of the two politicians' almost emotional statements. The Peshmerga are fighting against the horror of IS in Iraq and Germany is not letting them do it alone, the ministers intone, as photographers elbow their way in among the video cameras to capture their serious expressions.

So is Germany, with its modern fighter jets, finally also participating in the international air strikes against the IS army? No - Germany is sending instructors to northern Iraq. This is what was decided by the government on Wednesday morning. Up to 100 Bundeswehr soldiers will be training the Kurdish army in Irbil in northern Iraq for the fight against the terrorist militias of the self-styled "Islamic State." It's purely a training mission, says Steinmeier, not a fighting mandate. And they've made sure that the decision can be reversed at any time if the security situation should change. Germany, this much is clear, will still not be taking part in the international coalition's air strikes against IS.

Germany is doing what it can?

The Bundestag still has to approve the mission in the New Year. But the two ministers have now already taken a stand, beside the enormous Christmas tree in the press building in Berlin, to proclaim their message of peace: Germany is doing what it can to bring about peace in Syria and Iraq. Without actually fighting itself, of course. First German arms and aid shipments, now the instructors.

Isn't this almost cynical? Jihadists are on the rampage in Iraq and Syria; they are slaughtering people of other faiths and international journalists, raping and selling Yazidi women, staffing schools and hospitals with ideologues, and spreading their message with incomprehensible brutality, all in the name of an Islam which they have distorted and disfigured. In other words, an inhuman, bloody regime is emerging in Syria and Iraq that is gaining thousands of followers in the jihadist scene in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Egypt, but also in Europe and Australia. And to put a stop to this, the government is sending all of 100 instructors? Is this the new responsibility that German President Joachim Gauck was calling for just a few months ago?

Expression of helplessness

There are, of course, no easy answers as to how to deal with "Islamic State" - and above all no simple military or political solutions for Syria and Iraq. Not any more, if indeed there ever were. The world hesitated too long when it was a question of giving proper support to the opposition in its fight against Assad, and in doing so it created a vacuum in which terrorism and Islamism were able to flourish. Of course the Kurds urgently need help in their fight against the terrorist militias. Support from the air, and modern weapons - and, of course, the help of instructors who will train them to use these weapons. Nonetheless, this training mission has a bitter flavor - that of helplessness.