why do we fight?

Well, we fight for a lot of irrational and rationale reasons.

Kellie, if you really want to answer such a question you will have to do a lot of reading about human nature, balance of power, international relations, and much, much more.

Merely picking a bit of evidence to support your biased argument, as if it was all to easy, is simply not good enough.

You may want to include some of the reasons why certain countries responded, and what will be the consequences if many pull out.

I don't want to declare war is ok (it is not), but the Afghanistan issue certainly warrants a better explanation than you put forward.

I think Kellie Tranter raises some very good points in this article, foremost of which is that there is virtually no public debate in Australia about our continuing military involvement in what seems to be yet another hopeless war on foreign soil.

What has been achieved in the years of killing in Afghanistan since 2001? How have Australia's interests been furthered by our miltary support in a fight picked by other countries?

Why aren't wars officially declared any more? Apparently, whichever of the Laberal Parties is in power in Canberra can commit our troops to engage in violent conflict overseas without consulting the electorate or even declaring war?

Kellie Tranter is right - the situation sucks. Why do we allow our governments to do stuff like this, without holding them to account?

CJ Morgan,

Why do WE fight?

AUSTRALIA is fighting in Afghanistan because both the Howard & Rudd governments have calculated the brownie points they earn in Washington makes it worthwhile.

I don't know whether they are right or wrong on this. I am simply saying that is the REASON Australia has a troop presence in Iran.

But why does AMERICA continue to fight in Afghanistan?

That's a more difficult question. My guess is there is no good reason and they'll pack up and go home in a year or two. That will leave Afghan women to the tender mercies of the Taleban.

See:

http://feminist.org/afghan/taliban_women.asp

Quotes:

TALIBAN REALITY FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

* A woman who defied Taliban orders by running a home school for girls was killed in front of her family and friends.
* A woman caught trying to flee Afghanistan with a man not related to her was stoned to death for adultery.
* An elderly woman was brutally beaten with a metal cable until her leg was broken because her ankle was accidentally showing from underneath her burqa.
* Women and girls died of curable ailments because male doctors were not allowed to treat them.
* Two women accused of prostitution were publicly hung.

End quotes

I doubt the Americans are fighting to defend the women of Afghanistan. I doubt many people in Australia or the US CARE what will happen to Afghan women when the Taleban returns to power.

I further doubt that those who do care think we should be sending troops there to help Afghan women.

Personally I think we should leave TODAY.

But I don't kid myself what will happen to Afghan women when Western troops leave. Mostly I won't know anyway. The media will no more report it than they reported the Taleban's treatment of Afghan women prior to the invasion

It has always been obvious to all who are not blinkered right wing extremists that John Howard took us into an illegal war in Afghanistan (and Iraq) on the flimsiest of pretexts.
It was because he imagined that he would gain stature on the world political stage if he were seen to be a cohort of Bush and Blair.
I live in the hope that one day all three of them will be taken to The Hague to stand trial as war criminals and then get their just deserts.
In the meantime we and the other countries foolishly aligned with the US are still embroiled in this act of genocide.
The unfortunate thing is that there were obviously no lessons learned in Vietnam
That this is an unwinable war has still not sunk in to their successors.
The slaughter is going to continue and the innocent killed and maimed until the US economy finally implodes and they will no, longer be able to maintain their war footing in countries they have invaded.
Without the US to urge the coalition of the coerced, it will fall apart and the Afghan people will be left to do what they have always done, fight it out amongst them selves.
Only some sort of partitioning of the country will stop the fighting. The oppressive religious rule will continue by whoever wins. That is their traditional way.
The only other way that Australia could get out of this bloodbath is to have a constitutional change that allows citizen initiated referendums. I think the result would be a forgone conclusion

Every war that Australia has become involved in since and including Vietnam has meant boatloads of illegals turning up. That on its own is enough to tell us that Australia should keep its nose out of wars that have nothing to do with us.

Spare a thought for the *soldiers* killed and wounded? At least they volunteered to go, and got paid for doing so, with additional benefits in terms of housing, pension, education, status etc. etc.

What about the *Afghans* killed and wounded? What about the armies' unfortunate habit of blowing up wedding parties? "Oops! Sorry! Didn't really mean it... hehehe." News footage showed Prince Harry shooting a heavy machine gun into the distance. What are we to suppose he was shooting at? A donkey?

What disturbs me most about Australia's involvement in Afghanistan is
a) I'm being forced to fund it
b) the media treats it all like some glorious goodwill mission
c) it doesn't seem to occur to anyone that our troops might be killing innocent people; that we are in the wrong
d) Alexander, the British Afghan wars I and II, the Russians, now the Yanks ... doesn't anyone get it? Foreign invasions of Afghanistan have a pretty dismal record of success. The Afghans are going to win this war; it's only a matter of time.

No-one would begrudge America the defence of its own country. But its imperium has gone far beyond its own Constitution and borders; it is now truly a rogue fascist state. Troops in over 120 countries, the right of the President to kill, torture or disappear suspected 'enemy combatants' without trial, and a creed of perpetual war around the world. So don't talk to me of 'right' and 'left' - both Democrats and Republicans are equally entrenched in this.

The only person in Congress speaking againt this madness is Ron Paul: America should withdraw its troops within its borders, save $1 trillion a year, and put its own house in order before it tries exporting its own brand of fascist feminism to the wild up-country loons of Afghanistan.