There is “enormous anger” among veterans, many marriages have been destroyed, trust has been lost: The chairman of the Bundeswehr Association has accused politics of failure in the Afghanistan crisis.
The chairman of the German Armed Forces Association, André Wüstner, pointed to the bitter reaction of many Afghanistan veterans in view of the Taliban’s takeover in Kabul. He accused the political leaders of the Afghanistan crisis for failure. “This is a political disaster. It is a tragedy. And I can only agree with the Federal President: It is shameful what we see there,” said Wüstner on Thursday in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”.
“Tremendous anger” among veterans and bereaved
Many soldiers were injured during the mission in Afghanistan or had seen comrades die. It is difficult to convey to the veterans and their relatives that the mission has in fact failed after around 20 years. “That is something that drives them, this ‘What for?’, This ‘Was it for nothing?’ Said Wüstner in the ARD morning magazine. It was also about the fact that under the strain” an unlikely number of marriages broke down “. There are sometimes “enormous anger” among Afghanistan veterans and bereaved families.
The inspector general of the Bundeswehr, Eberhard Zorn, had evacuation plans drawn up months ago. “But it is always a question of the political assessment of the situation, the political decision. And that was made very late.”
Letters from other locations
Wüstner also warned of a loss of confidence in politics, especially with regard to other German soldiers on dangerous missions abroad. “We have also received letters from Mali or from other regions, which of course now ask questions about the subject of misjudgment,” said Wüstner. He hoped the Department of Defense could find an answer to these soldiers’ concerns and questions.
The Taliban invaded Kabul after a rapid campaign of conquest and thus returned to power almost 20 years after the invasion of Afghanistan by Western troops. Tens of thousands of people are currently trying to flee the country because they fear a return to rule based on the draconian rules of fundamentalist Islam, as practiced by the Taliban between 1996 and 2001.
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