One has to give credit to Ms Bishop for one thing: she is indefatigable in defending the indefensible. Can I make one suggestion to Ms Bishop before she ventures forth yet again on the topic of Afghanistan? She should read the report of Lt. Col Dan Davis "Dereliction of Duty" (January 2012). It contains more insights in its 83 pages of text than the thousands of pages of nonsense that passes for commentary in this and other media.

I know that Ms Bishop is a busy woman and reading things outside the daily talking points prepared by the Opposition leader's office would probably take more time than she has available. But unless and until she is prepared to acquaint herself with, for example, Afghanistan history (the last 200 years would be good), and some really good academic commentaries on why the US et al are really in Afghanistan (clue: it's noting to do with 9/11 or the Taliban), she might like to give this topic a rest.

One good thing about Ms Bishop’s articles – they are always blissfully short.

Two things stand out here:

<<A tragic consequence has been the killing of international troops, including Australians, by Afghan soldiers and police undergoing training and with whom they are conducting joint operations.>>

As if this is the only tragedy that has occurred throughout this country’s bloody and violent history.

And this:

<<In my conversations with members of the Special Air Service Regiment, some of whom are based in my electorate in Perth, they report enormous gains in their efforts to stabilise Afghanistan. They are committed to the task and understandably express frustration that the positives are rarely reported while the negatives are headline news.>>

And yet here you are, Ms Bishop, reiterating that negative headline news. Way to undermine your own argument.

The writer of this article writes in support of a vested interest, so must be read and treated with some caution.
The initial campaign in Afghanistan was instituted by the USA and its mainly European allies for two objectives: 1): To defeat the Taliban fundimentalist religious movement, who with religious zeal combined with military assistance and finance from certain other like Muslim fundimentalist countries were forcefully taking control of the whole country. and 2): In defeating this Taliban( who were sheltering/aiding the fundimentalist terrorist group known as Al Qaida who had recently committed such terrorist attacks upon the US military forces and civilian targets) they would also defeat Al Qaida.
The first objective was fairly quickly carried out successfully, the second is still ongoing, although a number of telling blows have been effected upon this latter organisation reducing considerably its effectiveness.
Almost all Afghanies are practising Muslims, and the vast majority now believe the occupying infidel forces should leave.
In remaining we possibly encourage these so called "Green on Blue" attacks, resulting in needless deaths to our service men and women.
We should now withdraw all allied forces from Afghanistan, the original task is completed with honour. The superimposed additional very costly task of training, on behalf of a corrupt government, an Afghan police and army, is a hopeless lost cause and must be closed down ASAP.

"We are going to see it through";
This is repeated parrot fashion by both of the Lib Lab leaders. and most of the underlings .
It is a meaningless mantra because what they are going to "see through" is undefined.
If they are trying to fool the proles into thinking that it will only take a bit more time, lives, huge amounts of money and it will all end well, with a stable Afghan government, then they are either fools or taking us for fools.
The ISAF forces are still living in a state of siege after eleven years of occupation. They are mainly hiding behind the walls of forts known as forward bases, patrol bases or whatever you would like to call them but they are a throwback to the medieval castles that were the only safe habitation in those days.
The Taliban constantly attack them. They attack the resupply efforts by road and helicopter. They attack the patrols that are sent out supposedly to maintain control of the area. In fact they are only existing tenuously with the aid of constant support front the air with huge amounts of bombs and firepower.

Continued

The Afghan army and police that they are there to train, are more of a liability than a help and it is obvious that they are never gaping to be able to keep the peace.
Sorry Julie but you will not ever fool all of the people.
The sad thing is that more people are going to me maimed and die, the longer this farce goes on.
We were led into this mess by Howard to hang on to the coat tails of Bush for reasons that are hard to fathom. Bush went to war there to try and control Afghanistan and enable the pipeline to be built, after negotiations with the Taliban had failed.
We should pull out now and stop throwing more away for no reason.

The cat is out of the bag.We all know why the West is in Afghanistan and it has nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden.Afghanistan has at least a $ trillion worth of Lithium needed for the battery industry.

It is also the avenue of Oil/gas piplines from Turkmenistan.It also now supplies 90% of the world's heroin.Remember in 2001 the Taliban had stopped the poppy production and there was a world wide heroin shortage?

Afghanistan is also being strategically used by the Western Oligarchs to contain China.Their Grand Plan for a New World Order has failed and this is why they are looking for an excuse to go war with Russia/China.

Arjay,
A $Trillion ? Hasn't the conflict cost ten times more than that by now ? I'd be more economical to just pull out of Afghanistan than spending so much for less.

We should pull out now and stop throwing more away for no reason.
Robert LePage,
I agree but how to work out who the last ones would be to leave ?

jewels..you know i luve ya..but ol mate think

we ben there near a deecade,,could in that 10 years have trained teachers..not fighters..head for polito spinning..and you got a bod for syn

so lets stop war..the russians couldnt do it..cause of security agencies involvement with money creating income..loves renditioning drugs..to pay for secret wars..

don't say it aint so
if sadman insane..hadnt hoarded the gold for oil..he wouldnt have been invaded..

ditto gadaffee his gold hoard gone
i kn ow the bankers renting of the treauries gold for 44 dollars per ounce..then selling it for its 'market rate'...but come on how long does 44 dollars rent 1600 dollars of gold

rent is an annual fee
banker pay the rent..but their affectivly broke..monetising a opromise to pay..then bundling them promises..into junk bonds

julie..we the people,..gave you powers
TO PROTECT US*..represent,,us..govt is there *for its people
not its business mates..we must get over business,..as its become usual..

they take the govt cash[like when howard/beaty EACH gave half a billion..so shareholders in a non egsisting magnesium plant..could get a dividend..and the mag smelter..never got built

that didnt 'serve' the people
lest we forget the queen..who's face is upon DEBASED/nickle coin..in lue of STERLING SILVER..the queen AND HER PEOPLE..of these COMMON-wealth..are short changed

ussr couldnt do it..cause drug money for secret wars
wsa aint going to do it..cause its on the other side of the earth
and the securities agencies running govts..dont want peace..want drug wars

hit pause

Individual" the Afghan war cost tens times that amount." You miss the point again individual.Thats is exactly it.Huge profits can be made from war.It has always been thus.A single missile costs a $ million or more.Who makes the profits?

It is now known that the Gulf of Tonkin incident which the USA used an excuse to escallate the Vietnam war was a lie.North Vietnam did not attack US Ships.The chemical companies made $ billions in Agent Orange etc destroying Vietnam and killing many of their people.

I was reading a while ago that Senator John Kerry had $60 million invested in arms manufacturers.The system has always been corrupt but now it is out of control.Giant corporates control our media and thus our Govts.

I think that Rupert Murdoch was resisting some of this insanity and march to war and they trashed his reputation by exposing activities that were common place in that industry.

Arjay. Is that true about Murdoch resisting the endless march to war? What is your source for this astonishing conclusion?

James O'Neill,Fox in 2011 was airing ads by Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHIj9wzbYGQ Fox put this ad to air.Fox also showed interviews like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcMKZmHozDI Here you will see Richard Gage ask serious questions about Building 7 the third building of 911 that came down in a controlled demolition style.

Also up until Feb this year Judge Andrew Napolitano has regular segment on Fox called 'Freedom Watch' exposing the corruption in the US political/corporate system,but since the Murdoch media scandle all this has disappeared.

The elites are fighting amongst themselves because some of them realise that psychopaths in the West now have their fingers on the nukes.

China played the game for a while by partially opening it's banking system to the West and so they won the right to be the factory of the planet.The plan was to to also subjugate China by their debt based system of money creation but in 2008 all this changed.The Chinese Govt still create 80% of new money debt free or as infrastructure.This is the main reason why China is been demonised.They refused total debt enslavement that we in the West suffer from.

Now the elites in the West face two enemies,those whom they have stolen super and savings from;ie us and NAM the non aligned movement of 120 countries who want their freedom.There is only one solution for the Western Oligarchs;ie WW3.

Arjay. I am yet to be persuaded that Murdoch is becoming a peacenik, although I agree that Fox does show some 9/11 material that the others won't touch. NPR did shown the latest film from Architects & Engineers however, and the response was so huge they extended the showing schedule.

I suspect that Murdoch realizes that Afghanistan is a doomed project for American imperialism and he likes to back a winner, so his current stance may just be repositioning himself for the next phase.

If the Aus media would show the A & E movie it would have a huge effect and help expose the Afghan invasion and occupation for the giant scam that it is. I am sure that the media in this country are aware of the truth (even OLO) but are afraid to put their name to it. At least GY to his credit does allow a free ranging discussion. The usual suspects excluded perhaps someone is benefitting from exposure to the truth in these columns, although more from the comments than the articles themselves.

James O'Neill: Rupert Murdoch like most,wants to survive.His actions are not about helping humanity.He knows like most sane logical people that this "Grand Chessboard" of Western Imperialism is headed for disaster.Even Alan Jones of 2GB is calling for the withdrawl of troops from Afghanistan.

Most people do not realise that many of these Oligarchs have for centuries had visions of "Manifest Destiny" ie,they were born to rule and be our gods.Pyschopaths cannot handle failure and will destroy themselves and the planet if they cannot win.We can see it at all levels in our society ,eg where a father will kill his own children in order to destroy his ex-partner.

The elites live in another world that has no empathy for the ordinary citizen whom they enslave.

Yes,lots of people now question the official story of 911,but many think that this old news does not really matter to them.

We in the west may not pay much attention to the many civilians killed by NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we should be sure that the Afghan relatives and friends of those killed do pay attention.
We can never have too many friends but we sure can have too many enemies. I wonder how many enemies we make each time another lot of women and children are "accidentally" killed.
If we look at the punishments given to members of the US armed forces who kill civilians we will see the value which the USA puts on non american lives. How can we ever expect to win?

Askari,"How can we ever expect to win?" The elites back both sides of war via banking and arms deals.They don't care who wins the war since they will win the money and power.

Hitler had to be defeated by our system not because of his tyranny,but because he had developed a financial,military industrial complex outside of the parameters of their influence.

During both WW1 and WW2 the banksters funded both sides of the conflict.It was all about extending their power base.