Afghanistan: what are we doing there?

Vice President Joe Biden has called for a “Pakistan First” policy to take some heat off the President who, in the few indications he has given, has demonstrated unease at the prospect of increasing US troop numbers in Afghanistan. Biden proposes to attack, what he terms, al-Qaida targets in Pakistan’s tribal areas with drones and Special Forces, while backing Pakistan’s efforts to curb and control the Taliban. In the meantime attacks on the Taliban in Afghanistan would be put on the back burner.

It is a proposal which has no place in the real world. For the US to step up attacks into Pakistan’s tribal areas would be to substantially boost recruits for the Taliban, particularly if women and children were to be killed as they have been in Afghanistan. The proposal also ignores national sensitivities.

Pakistan’s recent military incursion into Swat in pursuit of the Taliban was for US and Western consumption. If they were serious they would clean up Karachi and the unholy alliances and arrangements between the Taliban and drug barons and levels of corruption that see officials and politicians drawn into the web.

The US would also need to infiltrate and undermine the agenda of the ISI and other intelligence agencies which conduct programs they see as being in the national interest, some of which involve support for the Taliban.

Senior Republicans argue that the US must crush the Taliban in order to deny safe haven to al Qaeda but there is little evidence to suggest that al-Qaida still has a major presence in Afghanistan and with many friends around the world including within Pakistan, Osama bin Laden could be anywhere from a five-star hotel in Dubai to a compound in Spain.

The United States is chasing its tail. It should first seriously address some fundamental issues such as applying real pressure on Israel over settlements: thoughtful and caring support for the Palestinians: a reappraisal of support for the corrupt and chauvinistic Saudi Royal Family: and a lessening of pressure on Iran which might further help undermine the grip of the mullahs. Barack Obama has shown encouraging signs of going down that path.

These issues are at the heart of opposition to the United States and most recently led to the arrest of a home grown terrorist cell in the US.

Policy makers in Australia need to ask, what is it that they hope to achieve from the Australian military presence in Afghanistan? Is it just support for the US-Australia alliance or is Australia seriously engaged in a fight against international terrorism? If it is the latter then it needs to be explained how this commitment is achieving that and in what way does it impact positively in the short and long term on the lives of Australians?  And this is not intended to goad the AFP into conjuring up confected baddies from the ranks of the misguided and dispossessed.

Are US objectives realistic? Can they be achieved? At what cost and over what period of time? Is the Australian commitment making a positive contribution? Are we getting value for money? Is it vital to our national interest to be putting the lives of young Australians on the line over Afghanistan?