Australia's level of commitment to Afghanistan was far less than our level of commitment to Vietnam. We are learning our lessons, slowly, but as long as the US goes on paying most of our Defence bill then they will go on requiring a quid pro quo in return. Any claim that we should 'go it alone' has to include costings; how much will it hurt the taxpayer for Australia, all by itself, to create a credible deterrent to other countries in the region with eight, thirty or fifty times our population?

You said "Malalai Joya is the very embodiment of an Afghan-led solution staring Western leaders in the face. Unlike the people we openly back, she doesn't have blood on her hands. Armed only with her voice, she is empowered by popular support.

She and others like her have the power to unite the Afghan people. She's intelligent, secular and she's a survivor. She loves her country and its people and they know it. She is the kind of leader that the long suffering people of Afghanistan deserve and she understands that for many Afghans the healing starts with justice".

Now i wish this hope proves true. But, if my observation of the observations of people in the know are right, there are other forces more likley to take control and set Afghanistan (and its women) backwards once the US and othes leave.

Sure, we need to be reminded about the flaws of Western action, but how about a bit of thorough analysis rather than wishful thinking and more slagging off about our supposed evil leaders who are in bed with the US which supposedly has no idea at all.

Kelly, why don't you write a piece on how the world would have been if the US did nothing the last 20 years. Let's see if you can put the pieces together, by looking at all of the conflicts the US and allies have been involved in to resassure us that everything would have been ok if only we did this and that. This includes Afghanistan

John J and Chris Lewis....Exactly!

Yet another well researched and presented article Kelly. Your explication of the servile relationship of our political leaders and their behind-the-scenes executive advisors who 'manage' (control) the dysfunctional 'Defence' bureaucracies is irrefutable. As you perceptively argue, 'checking up' requires us to confront uncomfortable and sometimes painful truths and the eternal vigilance by every citizen.

It also exposes, and thus threatens, the politico-ECONOMIC interests of those claiming to represent and serve the majority of ‘ordinary’ (ie, Working Class and Lower Middle Class) Australians, whose sons and taxes are sacrificed in the pursuit of the highly-profitable war INDUSTRIES … in particular the executives and wealthy shareholders of giant U$ corporations and the career mandarins of the American military hierarchy … a collective behemoth known as the military-industrial complex.

Ostensibly serving and protecting U$ and “Australia’s” interests, the illegitimate bombardment, invasion and occupation of resource-rich but ‘less-developed’ and poorly armed countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan - and before that Yugoslavia, Viet Nam, Korea, and several Central and South American countries - under a variety of easily-seen-through pretexts (non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction and Humanitarian Interventions), is all about securing basic raw materials and ‘cheap labour’ to protect and preserve the highly divisive, anti-social and anti-democratic, profit-driven Capitalist economic system

Kellie, would you please document just what the Afghanistan adventure has cost you. I won't hold my breath for an answer.

Sowat another current thread documents the fact that lower middle income people in Oz pay in aggregate, no tax. A good thing too, as I can't afford any. That being the case, I'm afraid your argument falls a bit short.

It also fails on the fact that almost to a man, those who have been there are ready to go back if/when asked. This goes for my son in law, who has had one deployment, & reckons, with that experience, that we are doing the right thing.

As General Smedly Butlersaid in 1930,"War is a racket." He knew then it was the Banking Military Industrial Complex" pushing for war.They make money putting our Govts in debt,selling the arms,medical supplies
taking energy and resources.Just like Iraq, they then make more money on the rebuilding what they have destroyed.

With the perception that there too many people on the planet,war in their eyes is more easily justified.

Afghanistan now produces 90% of the World's heroine.It has over $1 trillion in Lithium needed for the battery industry and is the access route for oil from Turkmenistan to the Caspian Sea.Is that enough motivation for invasion?