It sounds strange, but the failure of the western Afghanistan mission also has to do with diarrhea and relationship stress.
While American soldiers were not deployed for too long in Afghanistan for fear of illness, German commanders were so concerned about the family circumstances of their soldiers that no one should stay in the Hindu Kush for more than four months.
But the short duration of deployment is a problem in a country where trust is the most important basis for long-term cooperation. “The Afghans have always complained about this: these foreign soldiers come and go again and again after four months. You just got used to the names and then they are gone again, «says Christoph Reuter, who has been reporting on the conflict for SPIEGEL for decades. “It just doesn't work in Afghanistan because it depends on personal relationships, on trust that is built up over a long period of time. Then a lot works. "
The SPIEGEL reporter attests that the Taliban have always understood the country and its inhabitants better than NATO, the EU and the USA.
And the Afghan leadership's lack of will to build a sustainable state.
“There is a government that doesn't care about its own country at all,” Reuter said.
Instead, many are concerned with their own benefit.
"If people don't believe in their own state, then it just doesn't work."
In this podcast episode of Eight Billion, Christoph Reuter explains what mistakes have been made in twenty years of the Afghanistan intervention, what lessons must be drawn from them and why perhaps even the intentions of the West are a problem.
You can hear this episode here:
