And what's interesting to me is that there is a case that arose in the German armed forces which is quite interesting.

NPR: What Does Watada Case Mean for Military Law?

And the German high court that decided the case held that the German armed forces had a duty to try to accommodate his views.

NPR: What Does Watada Case Mean for Military Law?

This was a case of an officer who was penalized and demoted, in fact, for refusing to perform some duties that had the effect of supporting operations in Iraq - this is operations of the German armed forces - and that went against his strongly held views.

NPR: What Does Watada Case Mean for Military Law?

Katharina von Knop, a data-mining expert at the University of German Federal Armed Forces in Munich, says many systems remotely analyse the content of web pages people visit.

ECONOMIST: Data mining

But with German troops already in Congo, and warships now on the way to Lebanon, some pundits are arguing that the armed forces cannot be stretched indefinitely.

ECONOMIST: Germany and peacekeeping