German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/37, pp. 3544-3545.
Herr President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. Dear
guests. Dear soldiers and veterans who perhaps are watching.
The Alternative für Deutschland here in the German Bundestag
today moves for the appointment of an investigation committee for a reappraisal
of the mission in Afghanistan, which in 2001 was begun by red-green, was
carried on by four additional Federal governments, and in 2021 ended in a
disaster. Not one, single goal was attained. Afghanistan was thrown into chaos.
What were the goals of the Federal government? The principal
goals were the preservation of security and creation of a self-supported
stability. The fact is that the number of terrorism deaths in the course of
time, and with the presence of the Western troops, increased year for year. In
the year 2007 for example, there were 2,000 terrorism deaths; the year 2009,
8,600 terrorism deaths – a fourfold increase. In 2016, the blood toll of the
Afghan armed forces was so great that the Afghan government and the U.S.
government decided to no longer publish the numbers, and the Federal government
joined in this deception strategy. All together from 2001 to 2021 are 212,000
deaths to lament. This is the result of a values-conducted foreign policy, in
regards to which the export of values and democracy were more important than
the reality on the ground, the cultural identity of the Afghans and the traditions
of these people. In the eyes of many Afghans, we were not liberators, we were
occupiers, a Western foreign body in an archaic, tribal culture, and thus
ourselves a factor in the increasing instability in this country.
An additional goal of the Federal government was the
promotion of the state of law, democracy and women’s rights. A research opinion
of the Bundestag’s scientific service now says: There was never a functioning
state of law in Afghanistan in the years of 2001 to 2021. Afghanistan was at
the latest since 2010 a de facto failed state. The Taliban won the upper hand,
and thereby also corruption, the drug economy and militia arbitrariness. For an
additional ten long years, the Federal government nevertheless spread an
endurance rhetoric and led the public to believe in an improvement of the
situation which was not in place.
And what about women’s rights? Today is the burkha – as is
read in the newspapers – again obligatory for women. Women’s freedom to travel
without male escort is restricted. Girls are no longer allowed to attend
continued schooling. That is the result of feminist foreign policy!
Gyde Jesen (FDP): Rubbish!
The Federal government pursued the goal of fighting drug
cultivation in Afghanistan. The announced goal was the halving of the drug
cultivation area. In fact, the opium production from 2001, the last year of
Taliban rule, to 2021 increased 36 times. 36 times more drug production,
although the fight against drugs had been proclaimed. Afghanistan is today the
principal drug producer, the principal opium producer worldwide, and supplies
24 million drug consumers, 80 percent of all users. In 2021, Afghanistan was
also the world’s second largest producer of hashish. No citizen understands how
the fight against drugs can be announced and there then arises a state which
works its way to become a global player in the drug economy. No man understands
this.
An additional goal of the Federal government was to enable
the Afghan security forces to guarantee security in its own country. In 2003,
the Afghan armed forces numbered 6,000; by 2020, 270,000. The armed forces
included more troops and police than the Bundeswehr. Despite this, following
the withdrawal of Western troops, the Taliban without encountering resistance
worthy of the name could re-conquer Afghanistan. The results of 20 years of
education, equipment, financing and training were pulverized within a few days.
How is something like that possible?
Ladies and gentlemen, this war had many losers, yet also
winners. The losers are the German taxpayers who have paid over 17 billion
euros for this mission. The losers are over 100,000 German soldiers who were
senselessly used as cannon fodder [verheizt]
in this mission. The losers are the 59 dead German soldiers and thousands with
mission-conditioned psychic illnesses with which today they still have to
struggle. And the profiters? That is the arms industry which did a good
business; primarily however it is the Taliban who today sit stronger in the
saddle than in 2001, and who are extremely well armed by means of our equipment
and by means of our formation.
Endlessly many questions are yielded from this 20 year mission;
and these questions we want to clarify in the scope of an investigation
committee. How could five Federal governments deceive themselves and the German
public for two decades? Why did the Federal government set up as partners corrupt
warlords and war criminals whose only interest was building their own power,
yet not in stability? How could it be
that the opium production was continually higher than under the rule of the
Taliban? Why did the Federal government so long refuse to conduct talks with
the Taliban, as was demanded by then SPD chief Kurt Beck in 2007 and as was
ultimately done by Trump, the U.S. President? How much tax money landed in the
hands of corrupt power elites? And before all: How could an entire army, which
was larger than the Bundeswehr, collapse within a few days? In our view, these
questions need to be clarified.
I thus come to conclusion. The appraisal of the 20 year
Afghanistan mission will not heal wounded and traumatized soldiers. It will
also bring back none of the 3 dead police and 59 dead soldiers. Yet we owe it
to them and their relatives to unsparingly clarify the disaster, the wrong
decisions, the empty promises, the deceptions, the lies. We want to and we must
hold to account those politically responsible. That is the goal which we pursue
with this motion for the appointment of an investigation committee on
Afghanistan.
I am grateful for the attention.
[trans: tem]
