Afghanistan Here We Come, Right Back Where We Started From
July 10th 2008 05:37
It is generally considered a fact, both in the real world and the blogosphere, that the War in Iraq has been a shambles, top to bottom. Some say not enough troops were on the ground in the first place. Others say too many have been put at risk. Some say the fight is a clash of cultures. Others say it was for the safety of the world. Regardless of what people say, though, the fact remains that some parts of Iraq are stablising. Kurdistan has been (relatively) stable since the conflict began. The British Army have, by and large, stepped back from maintaining law and order in Basra. And now the main contingent of Australian soldiers tasked with putting vital infrastructure in place and training the Iraqi forces to look after themselves have been removed. It would be far too easy to say that the anti-war crowd, one way or another, won their five year long fight for withdrawal. But you and I both know that crowd far too well to put the words “satisfied” and “anti-war protesters” in the same sentence.
At heart, the anti-war crowd don’t have a political ideology. Most of those you see on television brandishing placards, faux-blood and a mad glint in their eye aren’t real socialists. They would die without their morning Starbucks. It’s hard shouting death to globalisation without a morning mocha. No, the anti-war crowd are contrarians deep down. They will never be satisfied, they will always find something else to rally against. For the most part we indulge them. When it gets too rough, we send in the police to knock them around a bit and send them scurrying. But this time their target is far too important to risk: the war in Afghanistan.
Since the invasion of 2001, Afghanistan has been a point around which most nations in the world have agreed upon. Well, in saying ‘most’ nations I really mean most of those that don’t aid and harbour terrorism. What can I say? There are always some crackpots in the world. But most nations agreed at the time that the Taliban was a repressive regime that not only harboured al-Qaeda but actively supported their actions. After the horror of 9/11 the global community united to try and ensure that the same thing didn’t happen again, and so in went the troops and ever since NATO forces and their associates (including Australia) have been maintaining order, rebuilding a devastated country and instituting a new system of governance under factional leader Hamid Karzai. The Taliban were thought to be obliterated, and al-Qaeda were pinned down. For a long time, Afghanistan was considered a won battle, a rare success story told and promptly forgotten. But now Iraq is over for Australians. And we’ve been losing more and more people in Afghanistan with the Taliban regrouping and taking charge in isolated provinces. This week we lost our sixth soldier, SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy, to a Taliban roadside bombing. And the anti-war crowd have found a new cause.
It’s been about seven years that we’ve been in Afghanistan now, give or take a few months. Forces went in shortly after the 9/11 attacks and have been there ever since. And in seven years, we’ve lost six men, most of them to a resurgent Taliban. Those six men, and their colleagues still fighting the good fight in the country, have done an outstanding job in liberating the people of Afghanistan from a regime that applied a form of Islamic law manipulated to serve their own patriarchal purposes. Those men have also fought to try and rebuild a nation, not to mention actively participated in the hunt for one of the world’s most evil men who many believe is holed up in the mountainous Pakistan/Afghanistan border, plotting devastation against the Western world. And yet the anti-war crowd use the bravery and courage of Signaller McCarthy to call for a complete withdrawal that would forever cloud the good work he and his fellow soldiers have engaged in for seven years.
Greens leader Bob Brown has said that McCarthy’s death should signal the end of troop commitment in Afghanistan. Thankfully, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard responded forcefully in saying that the Federal Government would reject that opinion.
“Of course our fighting men and women there are involved in important work, they're involved in the reconstruction of the country, they are involved in holding back the Taliban from disrupting that reconstruction."
Thank God someone has their head screwed on. Agent Politics thanks Signaller McCarthy and his fellow soldiers that have given their lives to make the people of Afghanistan safe. We can only hope that the Federal Government remains strong, and honours their sacrifice by ensuring that we don’t leave them high and dry.
At heart, the anti-war crowd don’t have a political ideology. Most of those you see on television brandishing placards, faux-blood and a mad glint in their eye aren’t real socialists. They would die without their morning Starbucks. It’s hard shouting death to globalisation without a morning mocha. No, the anti-war crowd are contrarians deep down. They will never be satisfied, they will always find something else to rally against. For the most part we indulge them. When it gets too rough, we send in the police to knock them around a bit and send them scurrying. But this time their target is far too important to risk: the war in Afghanistan.
Since the invasion of 2001, Afghanistan has been a point around which most nations in the world have agreed upon. Well, in saying ‘most’ nations I really mean most of those that don’t aid and harbour terrorism. What can I say? There are always some crackpots in the world. But most nations agreed at the time that the Taliban was a repressive regime that not only harboured al-Qaeda but actively supported their actions. After the horror of 9/11 the global community united to try and ensure that the same thing didn’t happen again, and so in went the troops and ever since NATO forces and their associates (including Australia) have been maintaining order, rebuilding a devastated country and instituting a new system of governance under factional leader Hamid Karzai. The Taliban were thought to be obliterated, and al-Qaeda were pinned down. For a long time, Afghanistan was considered a won battle, a rare success story told and promptly forgotten. But now Iraq is over for Australians. And we’ve been losing more and more people in Afghanistan with the Taliban regrouping and taking charge in isolated provinces. This week we lost our sixth soldier, SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy, to a Taliban roadside bombing. And the anti-war crowd have found a new cause.
It’s been about seven years that we’ve been in Afghanistan now, give or take a few months. Forces went in shortly after the 9/11 attacks and have been there ever since. And in seven years, we’ve lost six men, most of them to a resurgent Taliban. Those six men, and their colleagues still fighting the good fight in the country, have done an outstanding job in liberating the people of Afghanistan from a regime that applied a form of Islamic law manipulated to serve their own patriarchal purposes. Those men have also fought to try and rebuild a nation, not to mention actively participated in the hunt for one of the world’s most evil men who many believe is holed up in the mountainous Pakistan/Afghanistan border, plotting devastation against the Western world. And yet the anti-war crowd use the bravery and courage of Signaller McCarthy to call for a complete withdrawal that would forever cloud the good work he and his fellow soldiers have engaged in for seven years.
Greens leader Bob Brown has said that McCarthy’s death should signal the end of troop commitment in Afghanistan. Thankfully, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard responded forcefully in saying that the Federal Government would reject that opinion.
“Of course our fighting men and women there are involved in important work, they're involved in the reconstruction of the country, they are involved in holding back the Taliban from disrupting that reconstruction."
Thank God someone has their head screwed on. Agent Politics thanks Signaller McCarthy and his fellow soldiers that have given their lives to make the people of Afghanistan safe. We can only hope that the Federal Government remains strong, and honours their sacrifice by ensuring that we don’t leave them high and dry.
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