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The tragedy of Kabul: The naïve politics of Biden, Germany & Co. who led directly to this inferno

August 16, 2021
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The Taliban were already on the outskirts of Kabul, when the Foreign Ministry was still busy with campaign bike tours - the evacuation plane only took off from Hanover this Monday morning. Something similar in the USA: Donald Trump has now called on Joe Biden to resign "in shame".

America is back”, that was the motto of US President Biden right after he took office. One of us is again sitting in the White House, that was the mood of many media and politicians in Berlin. Instead of a wild “Twitter cowboy”, there is now a professional statesman who pulls in the same direction as Chancellor Merkel and the EU.

America is back - back in 1975, when the last diplomats had to be flown from the roof of the US embassy in Saigon, South Vietnam. At least that is what the pictures of the last few hours from Afghanistan are reminiscent of. What is happening in Kabul is a colossal disaster that can hardly be put into words. Some of the most modern armies in the world are leaving an entire country in chaos to a gang of Islamic terrorists. First and foremost, it is a political failure: Mainly for the Biden government, but also for the governments in Europe and especially German foreign and security policy.

Biden's government is largely to blame for the horror in Kabul. He is responsible for the completely hasty withdrawal of US troops. His original goal was to leave Afghanistan on the symbolic September 11th, on the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, he wanted to return the country to the Taliban, the terrorists back then.

Biden moved the date of the withdrawal to August 30th. In the worst case, six months after the withdrawal, the Taliban would be back in power, it was said, and anyway, that was not even settled. Because if the Taliban violated human rights, they would be denied international recognition and aid deliveries. It's like intimidating a gang of terrorists known for executing people for watching TV with a diplomatic toddler.

At the beginning of last week, the Taliban suddenly controlled two thirds of the country, and every day new provincial capitals fell to the Taliban: "The Islamic Learner Movement of Afghanistan" . They marched on and on towards Kabul. "I do not regret my decision," said US President Biden to reporters last Tuesday. "Under no circumstances" will you see pictures like those in Saigon in Vietnam in 1975, he said in July.


The US troop withdrawal was over 95 percent complete. On Friday, a new forecast from the Pentagon caused a stir: Kabul could fall to the Taliban within 90 days. It only took two days for them to pose in the Afghan presidential office. On Saturday, the Afghan president was still combative and announced a counter-offensive. The next morning, the news came from Kabul that there would be a "peaceful transfer of power" to the Islamists. The president fled to Tajikistan by jet, and hours later the Taliban held a press conference in his offices in the presidential palace: Kabul had fallen.

“Those who do not learn from history are forced to repeat it. Let's hope we don't have another Vietnam experience and have learned our lesson. Saigon is logging out. ”That was the last message from CIA agent Thomas Polgar, who burned the last files in the South Vietnamese US embassy in 1975 and was one of the last Americans to leave the country by helicopter in the morning hours of May 1, 1975.

The Taliban are stealing state-of-the-art combat equipment left behind: in addition to numerous helicopters, armored personnel carriers and combat drones, which are ideal for terrorist purposes. Russia, China & Co. will be happy to acquire and investigate some of these top-secret US productions.

The US embassy has meanwhile been evacuated, everything including the US star and stripes has been brought to Kabul International Airport, probably the last place in Kabul that the Taliban have not yet controlled. Chaotic scenes are now playing out there.


Hundreds of foreign diplomats, unskilled workers, reporters, including German citizens, are trying to leave the country. The German government has completely failed to evacuate its own citizens and allies in time. The situation is also dangerous for Afghan local staff, translators and employees of diplomatic and military institutions in Germany. Some of them worked side by side with NATO troops and now have to fear death. The Bundeswehr left there at the end of April 2021.

It has been more than three months since then, in which practically nothing happened - and now people are at the mercy of the Taliban. While Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban, it was simply a weekend in Berlin. Only on Monday morning (!) - after Kabul had completely fallen - does an Airbus A400M of the German Armed Forces take off from Hanover, the plane is supposed to arrive in Afghanistan sometime during the day via a stopover in Baku. The plane has been available at the airport for days, but was not allowed to depart. Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is politically responsible for this. In the night from Sunday to Monday, the first employees of the German embassy were finally able to be taken out of the country by the United States.

The Minister of State responsible for Afghanistan in the Foreign Office, Niels Annen (SPD), presented himself on Instagram with a grin on Sunday during a “political bike tour” at home in the constituency.
Above: "While the Taliban are overrunning Afghanistan, Minister of State Niels Annen - who is responsible for Afghanistan, among other things - visits the volunteer fire brigade in Pöselsdorf and takes time for happy Insta posts."

Because Foreign Minister Heiko Maas knew better. In June he said: “All these questions are based on the fact that in a few weeks the Taliban will have the scepter in Afghanistan. That is not the basis of my assumptions. But we assume [...] that the fighting will increase. At the same time, however, there is a peace process between the Taliban and the Afghan government, which has not been suspended and which I also do not consider to be unattainable. "

In Afghanistan only one thing is certain at the moment: the “peace process” is definitely over, the Taliban are now the undisputed rulers. All the empty phrases about "dialogue" and "political solutions" and threats to turn off the funding are met with the harsh reality: that the Taliban, unlike Heiko Maas, are not interested in a place at the UN coffee party and for them German money doesn't really matter. Stoning, chopping off hands and pouring acids into the faces of unveiled women are more of an interest to the Hindu Kush troops.

Months, weeks and finally days passed without the Germans and allies being brought to safety in time. "We are prepared for all scenarios," said the Federal Foreign Minister just a few days ago. The German failure in Kabul has a name: Heiko Maas. And failure is currently putting many people in direct mortal danger.

American failure, on the other hand, is no better personified than Joe Biden. Ex-US President Donald Trump called on his successor to resign on Sunday. It is time that he resigned “in disgrace” “for what he allowed in Afghanistan”.

With the low point of his presidency so far, Biden proved what even Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates once said about him: "Over the past four decades he has been wrong about almost all important questions of foreign policy and national security."

Source: Tichys Einblick
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