We were not born yesterday

Implementing a Kony 2012-type campaign there would render immediately vacant most of the seats in the Afghan parliament.

In this context it is absurd to put isolated propositions about our "achievements", things like the improvement in life expectancy for the women in Afghanistan (the figures compiled by a US-sponsored mortality survey, disputed by several experts), or gains in girls' education without discussing the documented qualifications of and limitations to that success.

People like Joya seldom face questions about their pressing concerns, like the 1.3 million Afghans - comprising asylum seekers, refugees, returning refugees and half a million internally displaced persons - and their insufferable conditions, or about whether the recent joint communiqué of Afghan and Pakistan Progressive and Left Parties has popular support.

Malalai Joya is the very embodiment of an Afghan-led solution staring Western leaders in the face. Unlike the people we openly back, she doesn't have blood on her hands. Armed only with her voice, she is empowered by popular support.

She and others like her have the power to unite the Afghan people. She's intelligent, secular and she's a survivor. She loves her country and its people and they know it. She is the kind of leader that the long suffering people of Afghanistan deserve and she understands that for many Afghans the healing starts with justice.

Soon many Australian troops will return home irreparably damaged. They will need to be supported and soothed and cared for. But the war in Afghanistan will not be over until all international troops have gone and Afghanistan can proceed down the path to self determination free of foreign interference.

The value of an accurate historical record is the lessons it offers to all humanity, and the opportunities to avoid repeating past mistakes. The war into which our government led us will conclude with a whimper, as it always was going to do, an ignominious withdrawal with no enduring achievements after a decade of sacrifice.

History has shown yet again that we simply can't believe what our politicians tell us and that we can't trust the motives they proclaim.

Now that we are facing the reality of our potential involvement in yet another futile war we must not just seek but also demand that in future Australia's participation in any war or the deployment overseas of any Australian forces requires formal parliamentary approval after informed and open debate, both in Parliament and in the public arena.

No ifs or buts. We were not born yesterday.