Germany's Intervention in Afghanistan

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Seriously – one wants to switch off all the political talk shows these days. So many Western mainstream journalists and politicians are discussing Afghanistan, and all of them “are not surprised at all” about the fact, that the West totally failed over there. These mainstream bigmouths in the talk shows were the biggest supporters of this disastrous military mission just some time ago. How low, how hypocritical can representatives of the liberal elite go? Where were their smart opinions in the last 20 years? Why didn´t we hear anything of them when the coffins with our fallen soldiers arrived back in their homeland? The answer is easy: They kept the mouths shot because it wasn´t opportune to speak out. 

Some days ago, the last Western troops returned from their 20 years long Afghanistan adventure. Germany participated as well. When the last German soldiers came back home, no minister, no chancellor, and no president welcomed them on the airfield. This undignified comeback of the soldiers of the Bundeswehr (German Federal Defence) made many Germans upset. And they have all reason and right to be.

For 20 years Germany was sending sons and also daughters to the Hindu Kush (killer of the Indians) on behalf of our big hegemon USA. More than 50 German soldiers died on a battlefield so far away not just in terms of Geographic’s, but also in terms of morals and reason. 

Just to be clear: There didn´t “happen so many mistakes” in this NATO mission in Afghanistan. The whole mission was a horrible mistake itself. From the very first day it was wrong. Those, who said that openly, in 2001, were stigmatized by mainstream media either as “Taliban friends”, as stubborn nationalists, or as kind of lunatic pacifists. In reality, the vast majority of the opponents of the Afghanistan mission were concerned about our soldiers, didn´t see any interest in this adventure and maybe knew a little bit about the bloody history of earlier attempts to fight in Afghanistan by the Soviets and the British. But in 2001, reason was not so much present, after Washington pressed its European allies in a war against the Taliban somewhere far away. Back then, the majority of the Germans were strongly against any participation in this military operation. But already in 2001, “liberal democracy” didn't necessarily mean to let the majority decide. The German defense minister back then, seriously stated that the “security of Germany is defended as well at the Hindu Kush”. The laughing from Washington about That impressive example of total submission to US interests and the ability to tell lies to your own people must have been heard even in Berlin. 

And while German governments, first the social democratic under Gerhard Schröder, and then the Christian Democratic under Angela Merkel “defended” German security in the valleys of the Hindu Kush, Germany itself became a hot spot for terrorist attacks by Al-Qaida affiliated extremists. 

The Afghanistan military operation was always hard to explain for all German governments. Why were German soldiers there? What was their purpose? The justifications of the government included the typical hysterical liberal catalogue of values. German soldiers were there to “protect human rights”, here and there, they were also doing something for the “civil society” over there, and of course, they also were defending “equal rights” for the Afghan women females. It sounded more like an army of social street workers than an armed force. But the coffins coming back once in a while, were frequent reminders that Germany actually participated in a military occupation of another nation. And why should Germany occupy a country in Central Asia? Because the Americans told us to do so. We, Germans served in Afghanistan as kind of Auxiliary troops of Washington, just like all the other Western armies did there. America did as well, but what was the best they did? They executed their geopolitical military operation and “outsourced” a big part of the risks to their so-called allies.

Since the Western coalition left Afghanistan, the Taliban took control of the country, province by province. They might be soon again the rulers of the country. 20 years of Western occupation didn´t seem to have weakened them. Only a total ignorant might be honestly surprised. In these 20 years, the Americans were doing everything to cleanse their bad reputation in the region: war crimes, misbehaving, domination, and arrogance. 

And what about Europe? Was there really no other option than participating together with the Americans in this occupation mission? That´s what our political elite tries to make us believe – that there was “no alternative”. But there were plenty of options. The German army – for example – is a so-called “parliamentary army”. In these 20 years, the German parliament frequently discussed the operation, and the majority of our deputies prolonged the mission. The German Bundestag (the German federal parliament) agreed 20 times, while the majority of the people were against it. There were 20 chances simply to say “stop” – out of so many reasons. But the mainstream parties always empathized with our alleged “responsibility” as a part of the Western coalition and spoke about the importance of spreading our “liberal values” to the last valley of the Hindu Kush mountains. One could even say: That sounds a bit lunatically megalomaniac. At least, that’s what our liberal elites learned from their masters in Washington.