Even before the debacle in Afghanistan, Mali was not a prime example of successful crisis management in a developing country.
Despite the international troop presence, the situation has become more and more unstable, and the EU-overseen and trained military recently carried out a coup for the second time.
In addition, it is not entirely clear whether the West African country really poses a significant threat of terrorism and migration to Europe.
So far, Mali has mainly been a problem for its neighboring countries.
A serious debate about the prospects of the Federal Armed Forces deployment would therefore be justified, also because France is thinning out its presence.
The Secretary of Defense's surprising tweet is not a good start.
It will take a while for the new Bundestag to sort itself out.
In the meantime there is now uncertainty about the mission, which could demotivate the German soldiers but spur their opponents on;
only recently there was an attack on the troops.
And it is apparently not known whether the government actually agreed to work with Russian mercenaries.
In general, one should know more precisely what it is about and what influence it would have on the Bundeswehr.
The impression arises that Kramp-Karrenbauer takes the first opportunity to get rid of a difficult mission.
For her big goal, namely to stay in office, she does not collect any points.