Ulrich Ladurner seeks out the “key players” of the West’s plan that Afghanistan will soon be able to stand on its own feet. As in Germany, Italy, Netherlands etc. the support for a continued engagement in Afghanistan sinks rapidly, the call fo a rushed training of the ANA and Afghan Police Force has become the centre around which “exit strategies” gravitate. Ladurner, who is the Middle East and AfPak correspondent for the german weekly newspaper “Die ZEIT” finds people involved in this process on all levels, who seem to have one thing in common: they all show potential to be torn appart by their obligation to the state on the one side and their own history on the other side. Ladurner draws a picture of a fragile state bureaucracy and security force who seem to nurse a growing ressentiment against the “western occupation”.
(article in german)
The movie included is discouraging – while most involved in Afghanistan have understood, that those things Afghanistan and Afghans can do themselves, they must do themselves (if necessary with foreign funding), Germany still believes that building bridges through the army is a good idea and make people perhaps look away next time they are not capable doing what they are there to do – to fight, to secure, to supervise. To kill and get killed.
On top of that – “a sign of good will” costing 6.5 million € to reconstruct a bridge that’s already there but has some faults –
The exaggerated presence of German army, attracting the attention of fury locals and their anger against the West are in the end just going to cost more German lives and diminish support for German’s involvement in Afghanistan.