Thursday, February 25, 2010

Why on earth is Australia involved in Afghanistan?

I was horrified watching the ABC’s “Four Corner's” program about the sexual abuse of poor young boys in Afghanistan by rich men and men in high places in the army and government.

They pick up young boys and tell their fathers that they will take them as an apprentice and “train” them; they pay the poor father money that is badly needed and then use the boys as sex toys, sodomise them, dress them in women's clothes attach bells to them and make them dance before groups of men to satisfy and enhance their perverted fetish fantasies. The men were saying: “This is part of our “culture” and that our wives know about this practice, but they just have to accept it. We don’t take any notice of women.” In other words, women have no rights and mean nothing to men in Afghanistan - they just have to take what men dish out to them.

It makes you wonder what we are doing there fighting this futile and costly war, other than to save their “culture perhaps?” The money that we are pouring into Afghanistan by the truckload would have to be borrowed money – which could be much better spent in Australia. When will our government see the folly of this war; come to their senses and pull our troops out? A recent report stated that our soldiers go to Afghanistan in good health and come back with all sorts
of serious health problems, which often results in ruined marriages and relationships. This is terrible and not worth it. One has to admire the Dutch who could see that they were fighting a futile, costly and losing battle in Afghanistan and had the courage to call it quits.

The war has been going on for nine year years and despite superior military firepower,
nothing has been archived except it has brought misery, death and destruction to the people of Afghanistan. It took the Soviet Union ten years to realise the folly of their war in Afghanistan; how long will it take us to realize that this is a war that cannot be won?

We
or the USA are morally no different from the psychopaths within the Taliban, who Afghans remember the USA empowered, funded and armed during the 10-year war with the Soviet Union. Washington sowed, unwittingly, the seeds of destruction in Afghanistan. It trained, armed and empowered the militants who now kill them. It is said that death delivered from the air has killed more civilians than the Taliban has.

Finally, our Government is spending money like drunken sailors. Every time there is a natural disaster somewhere, we hand out millions of dollars.I have nothing against helping a country in need, provided we have the mo
ney, but we haven’t and have to borrow it. The nest egg of $42 billion saved by our previous government has been spent. The millions we spent in Afghanistan, in Timor, the Solomon Islands and giving away about $500 million to the corrupt government of New Guinea, is money we have to borrow. The Australian people will eventually have to pay this money back, but till we are able to, the interest burden for this borrowed money will be like a millstone around our collective necks for many years. All this money could have been spent in our country, after all charity should start at home. No matter which way we look at this, or our involvement in Afghanistan, it just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

As an avid follower and observer of world affairs and world politics I have read many Stories about Afghanistan and what Dr. Juliette Fournot said clearly confirms my point that this war is futile, costly and not winnable. – W
erner Schmidlin

Click here to find more reasons why we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan.


Following is some of what Dr. Juliette Fournot had to say. She lived with her parents in Afghanistan as a teenager, speaks Dari and led teams of French doctors and nurses from Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, into Afghanistan during the war with the Soviets. I quote

I fear that years of war have shattered the concept of nationhood. “There is so much personal and mental destruction. Over 70 percent of the population has never known anything else but war. Kids do not go to school.
War is normality. It gives that adrenaline rush that provides a momentary sense of high, and that is what they live on. And how can you build a nation on that?”

The Pashtuns have built an alliance with the Taliban to restore Pashtun power that was lost in the 2001 invasion. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is, to the Pashtuns, a meaningless demarcation that was drawn by imperial powers through the middle of their tribal lands. There are 13 million Pashtuns in Afghanistan and another 28 million in Pakistan. The Pashtuns are fighting forces in Islamabad and Kabul they see as seeking to wrest from them their honour and autonomy. They see little difference between the Pakistani military, American troops and the Afghan army.

Islamabad, while it may battle Taliban forces in Swat or
the provinces, does not regard the Taliban as a mortal enemy. The enemy is and has always been India. The balance of power with India requires the Pakistani authorities to ensure that any Afghan government is allied with it. This means it cannot push the Pashtuns in the Northwest Frontier Province or in Afghanistan too far. It must keep its channels open. The cat-and-mouse game between the Pakistani authorities and the Pashtuns, which drives Washington to fury, will never end. Islamabad needs the Pashtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan more than the Pashtuns need them.

The U.S. fuels the bonfires of war. The more troops we send to Afghanistan, the more drones we send on bombing runs over Pakistan, the more air strikes we carry out, the worse the unravelling will become. We have killed twice as many civilians as the Taliban this year and that number is sure to rise in the coming months. “I find this term ‘collateral damage‘ dehumanizing,” as if it is a necessity. People are sacrificed on the altar of an idea. Air power is blind. I know this from having been caught in numerous bombings.” Click to enlarge picture

I see the American project in Afghanistan as mirroring that of the doomed Soviet occupation that began in December 1979. A beleaguered Afghan population, brutalized by chaos and violence, desperately hoped for stability and peace. The Soviets, like the Americans, spoke of equality, economic prosperity, development, education, women’s rights and political freedom. But within two years, the ugly face of Soviet domination had unmasked the flowery rhetoric. The Afghans launched their insurgency to drive the Soviets out of the country.

We are faced with two stark choices. We can withdraw and open negotiations with the Taliban or continue to expand the war until we are driven out. The corrupt and unpopular regimes of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan and Asif Ali Zardari are impotent allies. The longer they remain tethered to the United States, the weaker they become. And the weaker they become, the louder become the calls for intervention in Pakistan. During the war in Vietnam, we invaded Cambodia to bring stability to the region and cut off rebel sanctuaries and supply routes. This tactic only empowered the Khmer Rouge. We seem poised, in much the same way, to do the same for radical Islamists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“If the Americans step up the war in Afghanistan, they will be sucked into Pakistan,” Dr. Fournot warned. “Pakistan is a time bomb waiting to explode. You have a huge population, 170 million people. There is nuclear power. Pakistan is much more dangerous than Afghanistan. War always has its own logic. Once you set foot in war, you do not control it. It sucks you in.” Unquote.

This should give everybody a clear idea what we are in for in Afghanistan.
Werner Schmidlin

4 comments:

Boldarn said...

Werner , I agree with you on this issue . Our government has leaned nothing from the Vietnam war .We need to bring home our troops a.s.a.p. But as long as the globalists run our governments ,I'm afraid there will never be peace as they are the real terrorists . only People Power fueled by truth can change our world and bring peace ,
ending all wars on seen and disguised ! Boldarn

John Asquith-Charles said...

This definitely is a sad and sorry world when these people say it is their "culture" to dress up little boys and sodomise them. It puts you in mind of another breed of people close to home. This is definitely their "ugly" side as well as thinking nothing of their womenfolk. They are a sick nation, and yes, "what are we sending our troops there for? The sooner we take heed from the Dutch, the better off we will be.

P said...

Interesting articles both. Thank you.

Last week on US radio a gent who's considered a historian on issues of child slavery in its many forms including the form referred to below stated the largest most well organised pedo***** ring on the globe is in Australia.

Another guest - an Afghani American professor spoke on Afghanistan at length. He claimed US infiltration over many years has greatly contributed to the morass. What he claimed Americans were doing there is to destroy the country.

In '63 when I was travelling through Tunisia and Morocco, we were told the custom of young boys with older wealthier men had been the norm there since time immemorial.

Meanwhile, you can be sure our leaders will continue to send our young folk to war as they're instructed to in the interests of those who pull the global eugenics strings.

Dymity, Palm Beach said...

Hi Werner, I wholeheartedly agree with all your comments re our involvement in Afghanistan.

I see where Canada has at least set a time for their withdrawal ... 2011. Lets hope our Government does the same very soon but earlier than 2011. I hope also that our Government takes notice of Peter Cosgrove who advises them not to send any more of our troops over there. I was interested in what Dr. Juliette Fournot had to say also. Thank you for your Blog. I am enjoying it.