Steinmeier: Germany Regrets ’Mistakes’ in Afghanistan Mission

Local Editor

Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Sunday that his country had made serious mistakes in its military mission in Afghanistan since 2001 while at the same time warning against a hasty withdrawal.

Ahead of the end of US-led NATO combat operations in war-ravaged Afghanistan this year [2014], Steinmeier offered a sobering assessment of the 13-year mission.

"There is a lot to indicate that our biggest mistake was to create expectations that were too high," he wrote in a column for the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"We not only wanted to snuff out the security threat that Afghanistan represented but also lead the country at high speed into a future according to our own vision," he said.

He said that despite progress in Afghanistan, the country was still plagued by a thriving drug trade and rampant corruption.

Yet, he said that compared to the situation in Syria or Iraq, "the results in Afghanistan are fairly respectable".

He went on to caution against "hastily leaving the country, like the Americans did in Vietnam in 1975".

Additionally, Steinmeier said that there were clear conclusions to be drawn from Afghanistan.
"We must engage more decisively, not only look at military aspects," he said.

"But we also need humility. We must accept sometimes how little can be changed from the outside," he added.

Meanwhile, news weekly Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the withdrawal in 2011 of US troops from Iraq served as a cautionary tale and wanted to talk to Washington about an extension of the mission beyond 2016, Spiegel said.

Germany has been the third-largest contributor of troops to NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, behind the United States and Britain.

After the end of combat operations this year [2014], a NATO follow-up mission will take over on January 1, made up of 9,800 US troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Germany, Italy and other member nations.

The US force will be halved by the end of next year [2015], before being reduced to an embassy protection presence by the end of 2016.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team