November 19, 2005: The German legislature has reduced the number of German troops that can serve overseas from 3,100 to 2,800. This is not expected to reduce the most important contributions of German troops for the war on terror; commandoes and naval forces (ships and aircraft.) The most important of these are about a hundred commandoes in Afghanistan, and 200 naval personnel keeping watch on sea traffic at the entrance to the Red Sea. This involvement also extends back to Germany itself, where German intelligence agencies have been doing impressive (if rarely talked about) work on monitoring Islamic terrorist operations in Germany, and throughout Europe.
