Relatively few of any country's population seek asylum. So, what about the rest of the people who go on living in their country? In Afghanistan, surely most people are suffering from the fear and privations caused by the Taliban. But most of them manage the hard lives they have without expecting to be able to do a flit to Austalia or somewhere else.

Why do some of you cheer on the relatively few who manage to skip the country and head here? They are the typical rats deserting the ship.

Why do some of you think it's OK for able-bodied Afghans to come here when our own troops are fighting - and 10 have been killed - in the same country the illegals are fleeing?

Haven't thought about it? Don't know? Don't care? Too stupid to think?

What?

Leigh,

"Why do some of you think it's OK for able-bodied Afghans to come here when our own troops are fighting - and 10 have been killed - in the same country the illegals are fleeing?"

Because the Australians are fighting the Taliban regime, not the Afghan people. The whole idea of fighting over there is to liberate the Afghan people FROM the regime. It's reconcilable for Afghans to flee here (and elsewhere) because the restoration, if that's possible, of the civil rights of people in Atghanistan is a process and, as such, will take time. The fact that fighting still needs to go on there is proof positive that it's still not safe over there for many.

Horrendous my dear, thank you for your response, when I have a little more time I'll try to decipher it.

It seems to me that any one of us choosing to leave our country of origin are doing so because we feel there is a better life to be had in our chosen country. Legal or 'illegal'. So I guess that all migrants could be construed as 'rats deserting a sinking ship'. Certainly many of the migrants from the UK are of the 'sinking ship' opinion. (Perhaps that is due to all those blasted 'furriners'?).

As for the West liberating the Afghans from the vile Taliban (who do a roaring trade selling 'spies' to the Americans)....;remember when Nixon was on Rowan and Martins Laugh-in in 1969(?). He invited people to 'sock it to him'. He went back in 1974 (?-post Watergate), and said: "in 1969 I came on this programme and asked you to sock it to me. Well, you can stop now".

Wanna take bets?? I think Afghanistan has taken all the 'liberation' it can manage. Many deaths of innocent Afghans have also occurred. Or is that just 'collateral damage'?

Besides, aren't we there to get UBL? Or is it a bob each way? Liberate AND capture UBL.

SO; people who have had their country destroyed in the name of liberation and want to get away from that, are 'rats deserting a sinking ship'. (And who is REALLY sinking that ship?).

Stoopid is as stoopid does.

RobP,

Yes. I know Australian soldiers are fighting the Taliban who are a constant threat to the Afghan people. But you haven’t answered the question.

You appear to think that is OK for Australians to be killed fighting something which is not threat to us, but it’s OK for Afghan citizens not to do something for themselves, in their own country, against the Taliban, which is definitely a threat to them. It follows that you think that it’s OK for these ‘asylum seekers’ not to defend themselves and their country, but to take the cowardly way out and use the war as an excuse to come to Australia, while your own countrymen are being killed and are facing death every day.

Thanks for the response, anyway.

Foxy I saw that interview. So what is your point?

Er, Leigh. Australian soldiers are in Afghanistan as part of a US-led invasion force that ousted the legal (if objectionable) Taliban government. While a West-friendly puppet 'democratic' government has been installed, large areas of Afghanistan remain in Taliban control.

It may surprise you to hear that many Australians have never supported our military involvement in Bush's Afghanistan adventure. Some of us even think that if our government wants to go and stick its nose in the internal affairs of a country that's never posed the slightest threat to Australia, then we have a moral obligation to accept as refugees those poor bastards who've been displaced by Western miltary adventurism and have also become endangered by supporters of the former government that we assisted in deposing.

Just like that other disastrous war in Vietnam 40 years ago - which the US (and we) ended up losing. Strangely enough, our society didn't fall apart, despite the fact that Australia accepted around 1000 'boat people' who sought asylum here following our defeat.

I don't suppose you've gotten around to reading those informative links I provided - Haven't thought about it? Don't know? Don't care? Too stupid to think?