“Markus Lanz” on ZDF is about the withdrawal of the last Bundeswehr soldiers from Afghanistan at the end of June.
Hamburg – On June 30, the last Bundeswehr soldiers who were stationed in Afghanistan returned to Germany. Three weeks later, Markus Lanz dedicates the lion’s share of his talk show to this topic on Thursday evening (July 22nd, 21st).
The occasion is the special “auslandsjournal – die doku: The return of the Taliban”, which was broadcast on ZDF on Wednesday (21.07.21), in which journalist Katrin Eigendorf, invited by Lanz’s team, sheds light on the current state of the crisis-ridden country in the Hindu Kush.
“Markus Lanz” on ZDF: Ex-soldier Dunja Neukam grants insights into the war
The long time lag is probably due to the completion of the documentary, but ironically it also fits in with the fact that Eigendorf and Lanz describe the furtive withdrawal and the sad understatement reception of the last Bundeswehr returnees as exemplary for the almost twenty years of service: Would a ” Markus Lanz “broadcast on ZDF on June 30th wasn’t more appropriate ?!
But better late than never, and so the conversations with the journalist colleague Eigendorf, but also with the ex-soldier Dunja Neukam, give a good overview of the matter. However, Nadia Nashir-Karim is criminally neglected – the chairwoman of the Afghan Women’s Association is far too seldom given the opportunity to speak, and one would have liked to find out more from her about how she perceives and assesses the situation in her former home.
“Markus Lanz” on ZDF: No election campaign with the flood disaster – or is it?
For this, however, the first third of airtime would probably have had to be used differently. Because before the distant Afghanistan, Markus Lanz comes back to the local flood of the century and tries to persuade SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil to admit, among other things, that his party is capitalizing on the natural disaster.
What does he expect if the man should say something like “Yes, we have an agenda: We are cannibalizing the flood and are happy that Armin Laschet looks stupid because of his laughter in Erftstadt”? In the equally transparent and futile hunt for a slip phrase by Klingbeil for today’s headlines, Lanz puts himself on thin ice instead. The answer of the SPD general secretary is of course to be expected sovereign and negative.
Otherwise, however, he does not cover himself with fame either with the flood or later with the Afghanistan issue and largely speaks the usual talk show phrases of a politician – “must be examined”, “must be taken seriously”, “must be put on the table” and “important signal” are probably at the top of every party book in the “important vocabulary” chapter. At some point, at some point, Klingbeil fired at Laschet’s “burning cackling that outraged people” again, either unmasking campaigning or genuinely affected – or probably a little bit of both.
Lars Klingbeil (SPD General Secretary), Nadia Nashir-Karim (Chairwoman of the Afghan Women’s Association), Dunja Neukam (ex-medical soldier)
The guests at “Markus Lanz” on ZDF on Thursday, July 23:
| Katrin Eigendorf | Journalist |
| Lars Klingbeil | SPD General Secretary |
| Nadia Nashir-Karim | Chairwoman of the Afghan Women’s Association |
| Dunja Neukam | Ex-medic |
Review of “Markus Lanz” on ZDF: 20 years of service in Afghanistan – learning from mistakes for the future
After a short detour via the migration and asylum policy of the SPD, Ursula von der Leyens and the EU, the focus is then exclusively on Afghanistan. Occasionally, summarizing clips are shown – about the US desire for retaliation after September 11, 2001, which had little to do with humanitarian reconstruction aid, but actually led Germany into the protracted operation, about the attacks on German soldiers with a total of 35 deaths, but also about the fatal Bundeswehr air raid in 2009, in which dozen civilians died.
This is followed by scenes from Eigendorf’s film in which Afghans – all men – have their say and express their often completely contradicting wishes for the further development of their country: some are hoping for the radical Islamic Taliban to come after the withdrawal of NATO troops have regained control of half of the country at lightning speed, more law and order, while the others fear the worst.
This is where Nadia Nashir-Karim, chairwoman of the women’s association, comes in. She sees a certain change – for example, education, even for girls, is no longer per se rejected by the Taliban. However, they would now rebuild the recently modernized school system according to their worldview. She has some hope because the younger generation thinks a little differently than their predecessors twenty years ago. She also reports of a vacuum that was created by the rapid withdrawal of troops and that various states, above all Pakistan, Russia, Iran and China, are now filling and using for their own purposes.
“Markus Lanz” (ZDF): Is it the right approach to militarily democratize another country from the outside?
The journalist Eigendorf underlines this with “Markus Lanz” on ZDF: Pakistan in particular has consistently applied a double strategy. The country appeared primarily as an international partner in the fight against terrorism, but in the background weapons were distributed to the Taliban. The USA, in turn, had massively underestimated their power and when the number of attacks on soldiers increased, a war was waged against the Afghan population out of fear of attackers and so their acceptance was lost.
That is why the question for the future must be asked now and the political debate about it should be conducted: Is it the right approach to militarily democratize another country from the outside? But it is also important to learn lessons from mistakes made, to analyze what the Bundeswehr has actually achieved and whether there are approaches that can be used to be more successful in upcoming missions.
Regardless of the negotiations, one should not be under any illusions about the future of Afghanistan. The Taliban would establish a Sharia state, no rule of law and no democracy, without elections and with many restrictions and human rights violations, especially for women and those who think differently.
“Markus Lanz” on ZDF: Good things also happened in Afghanistan
The ex-medical soldier Dunja Neukam gives a face to the 150,000 German soldiers who were stationed in Afghanistan during the mission. She says that at the beginning they were in a very positive mood and initially actually did a lot of good for the civilian population, especially in the health sector. However, this changed with the Taliban attacks.
Seriously injured comrades had to be seen and treated, and in some cases even lost. This made one fearful and suspicious and, in the end, hardly any civilians were allowed into the camps. The topic of post-traumatic stress disorder is also discussed. This is where Klingbeil and Eigendorf intervene – in contrast to the SPD man, however, the journalist does not believe that the federal government would do enough for soldiers suffering from PTSD, especially since the mental illness sometimes only appears after many years and those affected then often stand there without support.
That has to change – which Klingbeil acknowledges with an affirmative nod. At the end of the program he finds a nice final remark that everyone can agree with: “Good things also happened in Afghanistan, we mustn’t forget that – and many soldiers who have had positive experiences there would ruin their own history. if we now speak badly about the whole mission. “(Peter Hoch)
