>>US’s last chance in Afghanistan: reconciliation with the Pashtuns>>

Who needs a "last chance" in Afghanistan?

The US should get out ASAP and leave the Afghan's to their own devices.

Before anyone raises the issue, I write this in the full knowledge that a US pullout will make an already bad situation for Afghan women catastrophic*. But the US cannot be the global cop. They should leave the Afghans to sort out their problems as best they can.

And Australia certainly cannot be the global cop. We should pull out TODAY!

Afghanistan is not worth the life of one more Australian soldier or the expenditure of one more Australian dollar.

*http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/10/10/malala-interview-asithappens.html

While this article makes a number of good points it overstates some aspects and failed to address others. As an example of the former, US intelligence estimates that there are fewer than 100 al Qaeda fighters left in Afghanistan, a number which hardly justifies the original professed reason for the war.

An example of the latter is the complete dishonesty attendant upon the reasons for the invasion in the first place. The war was and remains illegal. What we really need is a discussion on holding our political leaders accountable for involving Australia in illegal wars, of which Afghanistan and Iraq are only the most recent examples.

I agree with Steven Meyer. We should get out of Afghanistan now. It was not, is not, and never will be in Australia's interests to do America's bidding to fight their imperialist wars.

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Most of this article makes sense and some new information is provided,but I was mystified by the authors comment "A genuine reconciliation with the Pashtuns is possible with a face-to-face talk with the Taliban."

My understanding is that whilst Taliban members are Pashtuns,in fact the great majority of Pashtuns would certainly not favor a return of the Taliban!

In any case,talks with the Taliban would prove futile, as they certainly have no intention of changing their aims or methods,no matter what they may say in order to gain some advantage.

The probable scenario when we pull out, is for a civil war to take place in a battle for power between the Taliban, other war lords and tribes and the current ineffectual Karzai government.

The Afghan army consists mainly of Tajiks,a minority group and they may be motivated to fight the Pashtuns,to avoid once again suffering discrimination.

This has been the longest war waged this century and we should all have pulled out just after it was discovered the Bin Laden and Al Quaeda had fled.

What a pointless quagmire !