German Government Ignores Realities in Afghanistan
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung (CDU), assesses the mission of the German armed forces in Afghanistan as a success. Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, the SPD’s candidate for chancellor, says he would debate/discuss a military retreat from the Hindu Kush only in case of an election victory of his party. In this context, Helmut Scholz, a member of DIE LINKE party Executive Committee and of the European Parliament, has made the following statement:
The German government obviously is still not ready to acknowledge the real situation in Afghanistan. While Minister Jung keeps talking of great advances in rebuilding the country and praises the German forces' contribution to restoring peace, the US occupation forces commanders see Afghanistan teeter on the brink of disaster/sliding into catastrophe with assaults and battles engulfing more and more areas and the Taliban becoming dramatically stronger.
After eight years of war claiming thousands of casualties also among the civilian population, destroying the infrastructure, causing a catastrophic social situation in many parts of the country and a social climate of violence and insecurity, demands for sending even more troops and intensifying military operations in the country in order to 'solve its problems' are a sheer mockery of reason. The violence preceding and accompanying the presidential elections, the enduring dispute on frauds during even this limited possibility of the Afghan people to influence their country's destiny, prove how far is /the situation in/ the country from normality.
The German government, nevertheless, stands firm on continuing its engagement in Afghanistan, which is totally unfit to settle problems in the country. How else should one understand Jung's statement, the mission of the German forces at the Hindu Kush might continue for ten more years. What is urgently needed, however, is that the German government provides a concept on ending the war in Afghanistan, calling back its troops now, and promoting the non-military stabilisation and democratisation of the country. A strategy is overdue which supports a democratically elected Afghan government pledged to constitutional legality. Such a strategy should be geared to helping remove underdevelopment and poverty and consider the region as a whole, for without a discernible /distinct? disengagement from the war, all alternative plans regarding the future of the country will be unfeasible.