Das Schock-Fotos.

Oh, those wacky German soldiers and their obsession with human skulls.( Video here.)
First they get their hands on one, and the next thing you know, they want to start stacking them up like Marilyn Manson's interior decorator. 

If that wasn't enough, one of the photos shows a soldier exposing his genitalia, whilst holding the skull nearby in his right hand. Sure hope he had some lube. That kinda stuff can chafe.

Of course, the Canadian and British government really, really wanted the Germans to order their troops to take part in the active combat in southern & eastern Afghanistan, in order to take a bit of the heat off of their battered, overstretched forces... 

Yeah. Good luck with that. I suspect that British and Canadian troops are going to find themselves to be even busier, real soon.

Something tells me that an already unpopular idea back in Deutchland has just become that much more divisive. The issue now may not be whether Germany's government are willing to send their troops into battle, but rather, how much political heat they're willing to accept before they decide to pull 'em out altogether.

It may take months. It may even take a couple of years before Merkel starts hemmoraging public support. But are they going to leave? Sure they are. In the end, Germany -- and the U.S. -- will be to Afghanistan what France was to Vietnam -- and some unfortunate schmuck is going to be left holding die scheiße ende.

I suspect his name will be Brown.