Kabul
FILE PHOTO: People try to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul
Images of throngs trying to flee Kabul are shameful for Western nations, Germany's president said on Tuesday, as desperate people clamoured at the airport after the Taliban takeover.


Comment: As many commentators have already stated, it wasn't exactly a 'takeover'. The widely mistrusted Kabul government fell apart as soon as the US scarpered, and the Taliban, who enjoy support from many in Afghanistan, were ready to step in amidst the power vacuum.


"We are experiencing a human tragedy for which we share responsibility," said President Frank-Walter Steinmeier after the Western-backed government in Kabul collapsed and its foreign-trained security forces melted away.


Comment: It's a little late to be talking about 'human tragedy' because the US' illegal invasion of the country happened nearly two decades ago and the result of the illegal occupation and war on Afghanistan was over 100,000 civilian deaths. But the West is certainly responsible for the war crimes it committed whilst there.


Germany, which had the second largest military contingent in Afghanistan after the United States, wants to airlift thousands of German-Afghan dual nationals as well as rights activists, lawyers and people who worked with foreign forces.

"The images of despair at Kabul airport shame the political West," Steinmeier, whose post is largely ceremonial, said in a statement at the German presidential palace.

"All the more now we have to stand by those to whom we are indebted for their work and support."

A first German military plane to land in Kabul since the Taliban took power evacuated only seven people due to the airport chaos after flying soldiers in on Monday.

But a second one took off from Kabul airport early on Tuesday afternoon with more than 120 people on board, including Germans, Afghans and people from other countries, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted.

More evacuations were to follow, with Germany deploying 600 soldiers for the purpose.

ANOTHER MIGRANT CRISIS?

Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that Afghans fleeing to neighbouring countries could make their way to Europe, in a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis, if they do not receive sufficient humanitarian assistance.


Comment: It's a rather odd and inaccurate comparison; Germany knowingly allowed that migration to happen despite - or perhaps because of - how divisive it was.


She wants refugees firstly guaranteed safety in countries neighbouring Afghanistan, with the European Union to later consider if it can take people in.

"Reaching a common position within the EU is not easy. It is a weakness of the EU that we have not created a common asylum policy," she told a news conference.


Comment: Of course Merkel wants the rest of the EU to suffer the same asylum policy as Germany, however citizens throughout the EU do not: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis


Germany opened its borders six years ago to more than 1 million migrants, many of them Syrians, fleeing war and poverty: a move that won Merkel plaudits abroad but which eroded her political capital at home.


Comment: A significant number of the migrants were young males, which in itself is hugely problematic.


She plans to stand down after a Sept. 26 federal election.

Armin Laschet, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chairman running to succeed her as chancellor, called for future military interventions abroad to have a clear goal, timeline and exit strategy.

"The lesson of the last 20 years is that the goal of regime change, to intervene militarily to end a dictatorship in order to build a democracy, has almost universally failed," he said in Rostock in northern Germany.