VOTE AGAINST WAR ON AUGUST 21
By Pip Hinman
After the eigtheenth Australian soldier, Jason Brown, has died in Afghanistan, the major parties have to justify why the troops are there.
This October will mark nine years of this war, and while there are mounting casualities there is no resolution in sight.
We’re repeatedly told the troops will only leave when the “job” is done. But we’re never given a straight answer about what this “job” really is.
A few days from the elections, both the pro-war parties have failed to convince 61% of Australians (Essential Media poll, June 22, 2010) that we should continue with this war and occupation – the longest in Australia’s history.
We were told Australia had to be part of the invasion in 2001 to stop Al Qaeda terrorists, even though the then Taliban offered to hand over Osama bin Laden if there was proof of him being involved in the 2001 terror attacks on the US.
We are now told by the PM Julia Gillard that the Australian “mission” in Afghanistan is important “because our nation cannot see Afghanistan once again become a safe haven for terrorists who are trained to take Australian lives”.
As part of the occupation force of more than 100,000 foreign soldiers, and even more mercenaries, of course Australians are targets in Afghanistan.
The secret US military files recently published by Wikileaks exposed the secretive role of Special Forces units such as Task Force 373, which carry out targeted assassinations and kidnappings of Taliban leaders, working from a hit list of about 2000 names called the “joint prioritised effects list”.
The Special Forces were shown to have also killed innocent civilian men, women and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path.
Add this to the indiscriminate bombings – some carried out by remotely controlled drone bombers – and you can see why the US and its allies, including Australia, are losing this war.
The longer the occupation forces remain in Afghanistan the more terrorists are likely to be created.
Former Chief of Army Lt General Peter Leahy said on ABC Lateline on July 28 that the government has a “bad strategy” in Afghanistan.
“We are not going to solve counterinsurgencies like this with only military means. Essentially, the solution is a political solution”, he added.
According to Amin Saikal, a professor of political science at the Australian National University, recognising that the US was losing and would eventually leave, the Pakistani military and secret service are backing the Taliban to ensure Afghanistan would “not fall into the hands of any group which may not be receptive or subordinate to Pakistan’s regional interests”. (ABC Drum website, July 28, 2010)
When a majority of Australians say they want the troops out now, how many more dead soldiers will it take for the pro-war ALP and Coalition parties to admit that only after the occupiers leave will the Afghan people be in a position to find political solutions?
The pro-war parties want to disappear the war from the election campaign. A high vote for those parties opposing the war will send a clear message: stop all the killings – Afghans and occupation troops – and get the troops out now.
[Pip Hinman is the Socialist Alliance Anti-War Spokesperson and candidate for the seat of Grayndler in the August 21 federal election.]
