Great Coalition of Afghanistan Warriors Resumes Mission of German Armed Forces
On the occasion of the forthcoming vote on the continuation of the mission of the armed forces in Afghanistan by the German government on January 26, 2012, Christine Buchholz, member of the executive board of DIE LINKE, declares:
Tomorrow the governing parties together with the social democrats will decide about the continuation of the mission of the armed forces in Afghanistan. To the public this is sold as a resolution to pull-out. That is a lie because in 2012 the mandate will only be shortened by an idle reserve, anyway. The actual number of additional troops to be pulled out will be 100 at the most – if at all.
So, according to the will of the Federal government, the war in Afghanistan will continue with undue hardship in 2012 as well. Even worse, of all people the minister of defence, de Maizière, uttered doubts on the final pull-out date in 2014 on a press conference last weekend. This demonstrates the readiness of the Federal government to sacrifice the life of Afghan civilists and German soldiers to a senseless war for an indefinite period.
DIE LINKE as sole faction in the parliament will vote unanimously against a prolongation of the mandate. Polls show: Our position corresponds to the will of the majority of the German society. But the great coalition of Afghanistan warriors does not bother about that.
Ten years of war in Afghanistan are a complete disaster. Even the current “Progress report” of the Federal government points this out. According to it the number of civilian casualties reached a new peak in 2011. Only 7.5% of the Afghans have “access to healthwise acceptable sanitary care”. These figures make clear: the NATO war can keep a corrupt Karsai regime in office - but to the Afghan people it only caused harm.