• The Forgotten Humanitarian Catastrophe

    International campaign calls also on Berlin to release Afghanistan’s central bank reserves. The funds are needed to combat the current famine.

    BERLIN/WASHINGTON/KABUL (Own report) – An international campaign is calling on the western powers – including Germany – to release the frozen assets of the Afghan central bank to be able to combat the current famine in Afghanistan. According to an open letter to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, published last week by the United Against Inhumanity (UAI) campaign, Berlin should immediately release the portion of the Afghan central bank’s reserves, deposited in Germany. Reserves valued at US $2.1 billion are in European banks, including Germany’s. Another US $7 billion are in the United States. On February 11, US President Joe Biden stipulated that half of those assets should be confiscated and paid to the families of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as reparations. That decision has provoked massive protest in Afghanistan. Critics are calling this move an unabashed “theft” and accuse the USA of behaving like a colonial power. In Afghanistan, nearly 4 million children are undernourished, up to a million children are on the verge of starvation. Read more

  • Occupation Economy without Occupiers

    After 20 years of western occupation, Afghanistan's economy is in distress, facing a total meltdown since western aid was halted.

    BERLIN/KABUL (Own report) - Following the West's withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United Nations seeks to supply the Afghan population with basic necessities. At yesterday's UN donor conference in Geneva, donors pledged over $1 billion in aid, with Germany promising €100 million. During its 20 years of occupation, the West was incapable of developing the Afghan economy, which remained dependent on extensive foreign payments that inflated certain sectors - such as services for western and government personnel - but did not help generate anything even remotely resembling independent production. While corrupt government officials funneled billions to Dubai in plain view of the West, poverty among the Afghan population was increasing. Already prior to the West's withdrawal, nearly half of the Afghans depended on humanitarian aid. The suspension of aid payments and the implementation of US sanctions, once the Taliban seized power, are dealing a death blow to the Afghan economy. Read more

  • The Era of Impunity

    Western military forces killed thousands of civilians and committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Virtually no one has been brought to justice before the final withdrawal.

    (Own report) - With western troops finally withdrawing from Afghanistan tomorrow, two decades of deadly western attacks on civilians and the West's systematic war crimes at the Hindu Kush will also come to an end. By the time the US withdrawal agreement was finalized with the Taliban in February 2020, hundreds of civilians had been killed annually by western armed forces' air strikes and Special Forces' operations - at least 559 in 2019 - according to the UN. Countless bystanders were killed in US drone strikes. According to documents leaked by a whistleblower, at times, only one out of ten victims of drone strikes were "targets" designated for assassination by the US military. Information needed for drone strikes has also been provided by German services to the US military, including information used by the CIA for the abductions of suspects and their torture. Australian Special Forces assassinated defenseless civilians as an initiation ritual. Western war crimes usually remained unpunished - still today. Read more

  • The Twenty Years' War

    The Bundeswehr has left Afghanistan. War record: a quarter of a million casualties, a severely aggrieved population, the Taliban rapidly gaining ground.

    BERLIN/WASHINGTON/KABUL (Own report) - The second longest and bloodiest military mission of the Federal Republic of Germany has come to an end. After nearly twenty years of war, the last soldiers of the Bundeswehr, who left Afghanistan the night before, landed yesterday, Wednesday, at the Wunstorf Airbase near Hanover. According to the "Costs of War Project" at the Ivy League Brown University in the USA, around a quarter of a million people lost their lives in combat at the Hindu Kush, and an unknown number of victims lost their lives due to the direct consequences of the war. Nearly seven million Afghans have fled their homes; the countless numbers are wounded or maimed, including tens of thousands of children. US expenditure alone for that slaughter amount to more that US $2.2 trillion; the German government puts its expenditures for the Bundeswehr mission at €12.2 billion. As the western troops withdraw, the Taliban is taking control of ever larger portions of that country. Soon the balance of power that had existed just before the war began in September 2001, would be reestablished. Read more

  • Power Struggle over Afghanistan

    Germany continues deportations to Afghanistan despite war and Corona crises. Record number of civilian casualties from western air strikes at the Hindu Kush.

    BERLIN/KABUL (Own report) - In the midst of the Corona crisis, Germany is continuing collective deportations to Afghanistan. Last week, 39 Afghans were forcefully deported from Germany to Kabul, even though the country remains war stricken and is now suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries have already been closing their borders to those arriving from Germany, because it is one of the countries with the most infections worldwide. At the same time, the Bundestag has prolonged the Bundeswehr's mission at the Hindu Kush for another year until March 2021 - the 19th year without any prospect of a military victory. Last year, the number of civilian casualties due to air strikes by the Afghan military and their western allied forces reached a record high of 700. The United States is now preparing to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, to better focus, also militarily, on its power struggle with China. Read more

  • KABUL/BERLIN (Own report) - The German government has announced that today, the cabinet will decide to augment the Bundeswehr troop contingent in Afghanistan. As was already previously announced, the maximum number of German troops deployed in that country will be raised from 980 to 1,300 because of the need to expand the protection of German military instructors. The situation in Afghanistan is, in fact, deteriorating. Even according to US sources, the Afghan government controls only a few more than half of the country's districts. For fear of attacks, soldiers avoid using road vehicles as much as possible. Last year nearly 3,500 civilians were killed in armed hostilities or attacks. After 16 years of occupation, defeating the Taliban seems more distant than ever. Increasing the number of troops is strengthening the western presence, at a time when Moscow is again gaining influence at the Hindu Kush and offering to moderate ceasefire negotiations. Read more

  • Hopeless

    (Daud Miraki)

    CHICAGO german-foreign-policy.com discussed the current situation in Afghanistan with Dr. Daud Miraki. Dr. Miraki is a sociologist living in the United States and is dealing with developments in Afghanistan, particularly the delayed effects of NATO's use of munitions with depleted uranium. His website is www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com. Read more