Status: 08/21/2021 9:41 PM
Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer has admitted a wrong assessment of the developments in Afghanistan. Sharp criticism of the government’s actions came from the Greens – and from CDU leader Laschet.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer admitted serious mistakes in the reaction of the German government to the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan. At the beginning of last week, nobody in the international community expected that Kabul would fall without a fight at the end of the week, wrote the CDU politician in a letter to members of the Bundestag, which is available to several media. “Our assessment of the situation was wrong, and our assumptions about the capabilities and readiness of the Afghan resistance to the Taliban were overly optimistic.” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Chancellor Angela Merkel had already made a similar statement on August 16 – the day after the Taliban captured Kabul.
Despite the almost complete withdrawal of troops, it was assumed that the Afghan security forces would “be able to withstand the pressure of the Taliban – at least in the urban areas and especially in the capital.” The assumption turned out to be wrong within a few days. “This means that the worst-case scenario occurred much earlier than expected,” wrote Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Kramp-Karrenbauer sees part of the blame for Trump
The defense minister wrote that the departure of the local staff before the Bundeswehr withdrew was planned, but failed because of passport and visa requirements. The Inspector General took visas with him on his last flight to Afghanistan from June 16 to 17, so that almost 2,000 local Bundeswehr personnel and their family members could enter the country until last Friday. The departure of further local staff was hindered by the fact that the International Organization for Migration commissioned by the Foreign Office was unable to provide its services on site and that the Afghan government insisted on passports until the very end.
Kramp-Karrenbauer blames former US President Donald Trump for part of the blame for Afghanistan’s rapid downward spiral. Accordingly, when talks for an agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban started, the hope grew that “the road to peace would be long, but feasible”. The fact that Trump approved a deal in which the “largely unconditional withdrawal of the American armed forces” was sealed “changed the situation decisively”.
“Nothing done in a dramatic way”
In view of the chaotic situation in Afghanistan, Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock attacked the German government sharply. “I see a huge failure,” she told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, especially with a view to Foreign Minister Maas and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. For months it had been clear that local Afghan workers needed protection.
At a Green election campaign in Potsdam, Baerbock said it was important that the Greens pursued a policy that was different and not like the current federal government, which “just waits and says that in the end it’s other people’s fault.” The federal government did nothing in a dramatic way and then said it did not know anything. The left also spoke of a “total failure” of the Maas and other ministers.
The Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet also criticized the federal government. This should have listened better to early opposition calls to bring local workers to safety quickly, said Laschet in the Sat.1 summer interview. “The approach of getting them out weeks ago was the right one. And one could have agreed with the opposition.”
Laschet accused the Foreign Minister in particular of failing to rescue the local staff in good time. “As recently as June, the Foreign Office was reluctant to take on local staff who were employed more than two years ago,” said the CDU politician to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. The lead minister failed. “We should have pushed more.”
Merkel again admits mistakes
Chancellor Angela Merkel again admitted mistakes at an election campaign event of the Union. “The Afghan government and army have collapsed at a breathtaking rate,” she said. The development in Afghanistan is a “drama” and a “tragedy”. “We wanted to give as many people as possible in Afghanistan a free, good and self-determined life,” said Merkel. “And we just have to say: It didn’t work out that way.”
The time window for further evacuations from Kabul is getting smaller and smaller. The US actually wants to complete the withdrawal of its troops by August 31st. A continuation of the evacuation operation without the USA is excluded.