Repeating others' mistakes in Afghanistan

Australian strategic interests are not being served through our involvement in Afghanistan and as noted are likely being harmed.

It would do no harm to show the US Administration that we are quite capable of reaching independent foreign policy decisions. There is never any respect for a patsy, which is what Australia has been for the past ten years in relation to America’s flawed response to 9/11. For instance no checks have been applied on Israel sufficient to stop policies of genocide toward the Palestinians and to prevent West Bank settlements.

In view of Australia’s Quixotic quest for a seat on the Security Council it would do no harm in Africa, the Sub Continent and parts of Asia, including Indonesia, for Australia to present a well argued case and withdraw from Afghanistan at a time of its own choosing after consultation with the parties with which it has been engaged.

Inevitably the Karzai regime will collapse and no doubt Hamid Kazai and members of his family, including his unbelievably corrupt half-brother, Ahmed Wali Kazai, will flee to Switzerland to escape the Taliban and enjoy their ill gotten gains.

The money Australia is spending on training units of the Afghan army will wash away after the US withdrawal and the inevitable collapse of the Karzai regime. When the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, the army attached to the puppet regime disintegrated and various bits hived themselves off to various warlords. There is nothing to suggest that such a rearrangement will not occur again, given the real and underlying nature of politics in Afghanistan.