The opposition almost always accuses the government of failing totally, that's their job.
In the case of the debacle in Afghanistan, however, many citizens will also ask themselves why the responsible people in the foreign and defense ministries, as well as in the intelligence services, apparently did not see the Taliban's rapid triumphant advance.
The air force rescue planes did not set off until the fighters were in the capital, Kabul.
The Afghan cities and provinces have already fallen like dominoes in the past few weeks.
It was therefore foreseeable that sooner rather than later Germany would be faced with the task of getting its own personnel, local workers and other Afghans in need of protection out of the country.
The mission may now be difficult and dangerous, and not just because the situation at Kabul airport is unstable.
It is no consolation that other governments, especially the American one, did not know any better.
After twenty years of deployment, the West as a whole still basically knows astonishingly little about Afghanistan.
Why was Maas wrong?
One wonders why NATO and the many commanders stationed in Afghanistan did not seem to notice that the armed forces there did not have the discipline and willingness to fight of a Western army.
And how did the German government come to the conclusion that the Taliban would not come to power “in a few weeks”, as Foreign Minister Maas announced in June?
Such questions have to be dealt with, just like the Western strategy for dealing with failed states.
In Germany this will no longer be possible in detail before September 26th, but the impending wave of refugees from Afghanistan will certainly keep the voters busy.
It is easy to imagine which party could benefit from it. The Union, on the other hand, is still bearing heavily on the legacy of 2015 on this issue. Laschet will not have an easier time in the final phase of the election campaign than before.