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Children of an Afghan family wait for their evacuation flight at Kabul airport, August 22, 2021
Photo: SGT.
SAMUEL RUIZ / UPI Photo / imago images
The day after the Taliban took Kabul in a coup, there was great outrage in the Left Party.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch called the Afghanistan mission the »blackest point ever« in 16 years of Angela Merkel.
Party leader Janine Wissler spoke of a "shabby dealings" with the local staff.
They did manage to fly out 65,000 liters of beer in time, according to Wissler in an interview with Deutsche Welle, but the people who worked for the Bundeswehr and other German institutions, the human rights activists, the women's rights activists, are left there Sting.
"This failure of the federal government to help will cost people their lives."
The chance to turn outrage into action
In mid-August, the Taliban overran Afghanistan with almost no resistance within a few days.
Germans in the country, but above all Afghan local staff and local aid workers, now fear for their lives.
Since then, the Bundeswehr has tried to fly as many as possible from Kabul to safety.
On Wednesday, the Bundestag will vote on the evacuation mission retrospectively.
The left would now have the chance to translate its outrage into action - it would be the first time that the party has agreed to an assignment abroad.
But the left wants to reject the rescue operation: The party wants to officially abstain, individual members of the notoriously divided faction could also vote against it.
Left MP Sevim Dağdelen, among others, has already announced her “no”.
Knowing things better afterwards doesn't help solving problems now or tomorrow.
An "I knew better" attitude doesn't save lives.
In SPIEGEL she calls the military rescue of the local people an »illusion«, instead negotiations with the Taliban are now inevitable.
"If we were in the government, we would have evacuated in May and June and would not have to crawl in front of the Taliban to save the people," said Dağdelen.
"If you had listened to the left, we wouldn't have the situation today," said Bartsch after the parliamentary group meeting.
Would have.
From his point of view, the new Bundeswehr mandate is not of sufficient use to really save all those in need of protection - the evacuation mission is degenerating into a "haggling over people".
So don't save it in the first place?
It is true that the left and the Greens had already called in June for a generous amount of local staff from Afghanistan to be accepted - the other parties had rejected the request.
But knowing things better afterwards doesn't help solving problems now - or tomorrow.
An "I knew better" attitude doesn't save lives.
The rescue operation of the Bundeswehr is extremely complicated.
Many people barely get to Kabul airport, the only way out of the Taliban hell.
KSK forces are on site with helicopters, and German soldiers have already been involved in a firefight on the edge of the airport.
A robust mandate can help provide a safe home in the coming days and weeks for those who believed in our values and helped defend those in the Hindu Kush.
Dogma about rescue mission
The Left Party is the only party in the Bundestag that has really internalized "Never again war".
The attitude towards unconditional pacifism may be honorable, but it is of no use to the Afghans who are now hoping for Germany.
The war in Afghanistan is still here, it's too early to say "never again".
If the Left Party's dogma is more important than a "yes" to the rescue mission, then in the end the party only proves: it can neither create a state nor save a life.
