Germany intends to pull out its troops from Afghanistan by end of 2014

At the end of the transition period ending in 2014, Germany will have pulled all of its soldiers out of the country. Until that time, the military forces will be working to create stability that can be maintained even after the last ISAF troops board the transport plane home. At a large Afghanistan Conference planned this December in Bonn, Germany, the international community plans to give a clear signal that it has no intention of abandoning the troubled country. "Even after 2014, we will remain engaged in the country, but we will just use other means," said Michel Steiner. Germany''s Afghanistan mission, allied with the US and other participating states, had three primary goals: it aimed to destroy the al Qaeda terror network in the country, establish a democratic government based on the rule of law, and stabilize a very volatile region. The number of German soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002 has now surpassed 50. The risks associated with the mission continue to increase and increasingly Germans are uncomfortable with the mission. Over the next 12 months, the US will pull 30,000 of its soldiers out of the country, and the German contingent will shrink as well. How many German troops will leave this year is not known at present. Military planners are wary of giving the enemy too much information. At a large Afghanistan Conference planned this December in Bonn, Germany, the international community plans to give a clear signal that it has no intention of abandoning the troubled country. The West still has a long way to go in providing assistance to Afghanistan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday, on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion. "We have made advances, but we''ve also grown more realistic," she said when asked by a reporter about progress in the country since a Western alliance entered the country to uproot the ruling Taliban government in 2001. "We know that we''re a long way from our expectations of human rights and a civil society being enacted," she added, noting that the West had a commitment to the people of Afghanistan. By this November, a total of 172,000 Afghan soldiers and 134,000 police officers will have been trained. "Now we have to make sure that they can cope with the task in front of them," Kasdorf added. "We have already laid a solid foundation, which is why I think they''ll succeed." But after a decade of massive support from the international community, according to the United Nations there are still almost eight million Afghans, out of population of just under 30 million, who are dependent on outside food aid. While a state under the rule of law was theoretically established by the 2004 constitution, much of the Afghan population still lacks any kind of legal security and government transparency is a foreign concept, especially in the provinces. German troops - which currently number almost 5,000 - continue to participate in the Afghan operation, now run by NATO, despite significant public opposition in Germany to the country''s participation in the mission.