It seems that my "holy" superlative was misunderstood. I used it in a sense of "pure"+"dedicated"+"unselfish", without any religious implications. Also, I attached it to the word "mission", not "war".

Comparisons to Vietnam are mere self-fulfilling superstitions, unless of course one hates the Americans even more than they hate the Taliban (a valid POV, but then be clear if this is the case).

I do not agree that this war, hard as it is, cannot be won, with the proper will accompanied by a sufficient number of troops. If however, due to the lack of will, the number of troops is insufficient, then I suggest cordoning and safeguarding just selected parts of Afghanistan, wherein the population, especially the women, can live in dignity and freedom. In that case, I would also use the military to ensure that every Afghani who so desires has a route to escape from the Taliban into those protected areas.

Kellie - we've been over this before.
The bad decision was going there in the first place. Once there the real question you and the "intelligent" people of Australia need to ask is why has it taken so long to reach a resolution, and what do we have to do to reach a resolution.
To pull out now would be inexcusable. The people who would be condemned to a dreadful existence because of such heartlessness and selfishness does not bear thinking about. You must try to remember the ordinary people who will be affected.
What would be good is a discussion of the tactics the new US general will have to adopt in a conflict that is necessarily completely different from the one in Iraq.. so get busy and add value..

We cannot leave Afghanistan yet.UNOCAL the oil comapny that Hamid Karzai used to consult for have not yet completed the oil pipeline from Turkmenistan throught Afghanistan,Pakistan to the Capsian Sea.Haliburtion which Dick Cheney used to be the CEO of are building the pileline.Now they reveal $ trillions of resources in Afghanistan.

There is another reason why they cannot leave.China has the manpower to totally overwhelm Afghanistan and steal the neo-cons kill.This would see the rise and rise of China as a military power also.

Where's Wally Bin Laden? No terrorist over there.None over here.You simply cannot find good terrorist help anymore.Terror,terror everywhere,too scared to question,too scared to think.

George Bush did the right thing in the beginning.

After it was found Al Quiada and Bin Laden were responsible for the cowardly 9/11 attacks on innocents and that their training camps were in Afghanistan, George bombed the crap out of them.

That's where it should have stayed.


Let the Taliban have their way in Afghanistan, the refugees and asylum seekers are right. Let the righteous Muslim Taliban run Afghanistan ... it deserves them ... They've had a chance at democracy and have blown it.

Let's just withdraw and then bomb the crap out of them and spray agent orange on their opium crops every few years just to remind them they might be able to kill a few westerners occassionally but we can decimate their country and their livelihood from the air as often as we want.

Their lust for drug sponsered violence and terror would soon abate ... it would be far cheaper and we wouldn't be having any state funerals for our very brave boys.

Keth "Their lust for drug sponsored terrorism...?"Where you been for the last 10yrs.The Taliban had stopped the production of heroine prior 911.Remember the heroine drought in 2000? When the USA took control of Afghanistan the drugs began to flow.Afghanistan now produces 90% of the world's heroine,said to be worth $65 billion pa.

Each generation has it's quota of those who simply cannot envisage the consequences of ostrich policy i.e. sticking your head in the sand & leaving the other end exposed to whatever happens to come along.