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The Forum > Article Comments > Afghanistan's fingernail factories > Comments

Afghanistan's fingernail factories : Comments

By Kellie Tranter, published 17/10/2011

Can the government put its hand over its heart and truthfully declare that the ADF has had no direct or indirect involvement in the widespread torture in Afghanistan?

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Had a quick look at the report mentioned in the article. Although there are, obviously serious, individual cases of torture, I had trouble judging the prevelence. With all of these reports the first thing you do is look at what they define to be torture.. severe mental and physical pain.. okay, so what's the beakdown? What meets their definition of "severe". Again, obviously, the cases they described met the severe test, but were the bulk like that? What was the most common form of abuse? To save me trudging through the whole thing, was there any further, exact information in the report? On what pages?
Posted by Curmudgeon, Monday, 17 October 2011 10:31:36 AM
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Kellie, getting your knickers in a knot over some obscure bit of unpleasantness in a still often unpleasant world does not give me any desire to see you in an Ozzie government, even a state one.

May I suggest you try to get interested in things that actually effect the majority of us, or perhaps specifically those who's vote you desire.

We really do have enough problems right here that require attention. What we don't need is still more politicians who's gaze rarely gets down to ground level, where most of us simple people live.

Perhaps after you have done something worthwhile for the average Ozzie, you could again pick up your lance, & go tilting at windmills.

Just be careful, some of these modern ones may occasionally, if only rarely, be producing electricity, & could actually be dangerous.
Posted by Hasbeen, Monday, 17 October 2011 11:24:56 AM
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I am glad that Kellie is asking these questions - and I hope they are answered.

Hasbeen, it's not Aussies against the world - the people we are talking about might live a long way away, but they're people. Some of them are children. And Australia is involved in their welfare because our troops are over there and in direct contact with these people. Kellie makes a good point - if we are really concerned about terrorism, we need to treat the people we are involved with in such a way that they will consider us friends, not enemies.

There's a simple and much neglected ethic being explored here, which is: will we treat others the way we want to be treated? And if we don't, do we have a right to complain when we ourselves get abused?

I hate leaders saying 'we didn't know, it wasn't our fault' when people are abused. It is the responsibility of a leader to know and to act - willing ignorance is not an excuse.
Posted by cellowoman, Monday, 17 October 2011 12:23:33 PM
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Kelly,

Your concern about the behaviour of Australian Defence Force personnel is laudable, especially given the involvement of some of them, almost certainly with Government knowledge, in Abu Graib. I trust you are making input into Australia's fourth report under the CAT, and that you will be writing a shadow report to the UN--or contributing to one.
Posted by ozbib, Tuesday, 18 October 2011 9:30:35 AM
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Torture by the Afghan Government....?

Well at least we know what Australian troops are fighting and dying for.... :(
Posted by plantagenet, Tuesday, 18 October 2011 10:16:09 AM
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