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The expulsion from Afghanistan is the culmination of a fatal process of repression of German foreign policy. We are facing further problems.
Horst von Buttlar
It is strange how submerged the post-9/11 world appears, with its logic and reason of security that is emerging again so dramatically these days. It was a world without Angela Merkel as Chancellor, without a financial and euro crisis, without a refugee crisis, without AfD, without Facebook and Twitter, without a smartphone, without China’s overwhelming power, without Brexit, without Russia as a pariah state, with dictatorships in Iraq, Libya and Syria, which was not in the civil war. The strategy of the mission has to be uncovered like an archaeologist in order to understand what the aim of this “eternal war” was.
It is all the more tragic now how lightly what has been achieved is jeopardized, in fact, handed over to the Taliban. Germany is partly responsible for one of the biggest strategic misjudgments in recent history. Even if the trigger was right, the pace and form – no backstop, no milestones – were wrong. In 20 days it melted away what was built in 20 years. The Afghan state has imploded, it is no more. Or did it never exist? Was it a backdrop, a self-deception, such a fragile structure that it could never have supported itself? If German security is no longer defended in the Hindu Kush, then where? And does that also mean: never again?
Anyone who asks these questions encounters a process of repression of German foreign and defense policy, in which the tragedy in the Hindu Kush is only the climax. Even the return of the last German soldiers in July was undignified. The Secretary of Defense did not receive anything, AKK was in the USA. And then the argument about where and how there should be a ceremony. All this was a symbol that the government had already withdrawn in the head, no longer ready to provide political capital for this mission. Anyone who read the reports from soldiers – first responders and recent returnees – sensed disenchantment, frustration, emptiness and a certain forlornness: the feeling that one had been abandoned some time ago by those who once defended the security of the Hindu Kush want.
More illusions than successes for over two decades
The failures continue: for months there have been warnings that Germany will have to evacuate thousands of people who are somewhat coldly referred to as “local staff”. Although around 1900 are now safe, thousands more fear for their lives while Germans are being flown out in panic. We experience our own “Saigon moment”.
Part three of the repression and irresponsibility can be seen in dealing with refugees from Afghanistan. Here too: reminders have been issued for months. After all, the deportations have been suspended. The new government should prepare: for waves of refugees, for new complicated agreements with Turkey, maybe also with Iran and Pakistan.
The fledgling withdrawal of the West from Afghanistan marks a tragic end to a forced strategy of “nation building” from 2001, in which there were more illusions than successes for over two decades. Which also means that most countries in the West, first and foremost the USA, are not only tired of war, but also of intervention. At best, there are still limited mandates in Africa; Europe has enough to do at its own borders. Other powers like Russia or China are filling the vacuum.
In the end, we painfully experience the intervention paradox: that moment when the argument that the deployment should have been extended seems just as correct as the one that the trigger is now correct because the deployment was wrong from the start.
What is certain is that Germany will now have a place in the NATO family grave, in the eternal “cemetery of the great powers”.
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
