‘So much for efficiency!’ Merkel shamed as German army only manages to rescue SEVEN people
Joe Biden ‘talking completely out of turn’ says Afghanistan veteran
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The first of several German military planes to arrive in Kabul was able to evacuate only seven people, a foreign policy spokesman in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said, due to chaos at the Afghan capital’s airport.
The main mission of the A400M military transport plane, in what Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer described as a “breakneck landing”, was to bring in German soldiers to organise and secure the evacuation.
“We have a very chaotic, dangerous and complex situation at the airport,” she told broadcaster ARD.
“..We had very little time, so we only took on board people who were on site. Due to the chaotic situation not many were able to be at the airport.”
Seven people made it on board the aircraft, conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group foreign policy spokesman Johann Wadephul told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.
The news sparked outrage on social media, with Twitter users shaming German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the seemingly failed mission.
One person said: “German efficiency always seems to fail when it’s most required…”
And another one: “Glad to see the allies are doing their share…”
Someone else echoed: “So much for efficiency.”
To which another user replied: “German efficiency is a myth!”
A third person added: “Typical Germany these days.”
READ MORE: Joe Biden walks off after 20-minute speech defending US withdrawal…
Military flights to evacuate diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan were suspended on Monday as people trying to flee after Taliban insurgents seized Kabul crowded the runway.
Flights resumed early on Tuesday.
Germany is now waiting for the United States to grant it permission to fly a second aircraft in.
Kramp-Karrenbauer said she hoped that the airport could be kept open for several days so that as many people as possible could be evacuated via an air bridge.
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The German military is using Tashkent as a hub to which it plans to bring evacuated people.
“Now it is important that we can set up everything on the ground so that we can get people out,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said.
“Those are not only German citizens, they are also local staff, at-risk people. We will also support other countries,” she added.
Germany said on Monday it would airlift thousands of German-Afghan dual nationals as well as human rights activists, lawyers and other people who worked with NATO forces in the country.
Mrs Merkel 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.
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.
She plans to stand down after a Sept. 26 federal election.
Armin Laschet, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chairman running to succeed her, 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.
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