Australia should pull out of Afghanistan

[russtafa]

Afghanistan has been at war with themselves or others for at least a thousand years and you want to drop social workers on them

[Yvonne183]

Hmmm, Yvonne -the point I was trying to make, without writing an essay on it, is that it is possible to prevent extremism from taking root in the first place -setting an alternative agenda, rather than allowing extremists to set it -because when you are dealing with people whose primary discourse is in violence, it is tempting to use violence against them: but that is to descend to their level, and as we have seen for centuries, it doesn't work. We were told in 2002 that Afghanistan was a success -Tony Blair crowed about it in the House of Commons: the Taliban were out of government, al-Qaeda on the run, and so on. Here we are, 10 years later, fighting the same war. People have options, but if those options shrink and violence is encouraged it can have devastating conseqences, Somalia being an obvious one. It is not an easy option and takes time, but if people, particularly young people, are given a stake in their society, a feeling of belonging and necessity, asking them to smash it up will not appeal. What, after all, have riots in Watts or Detroit or Chicago achieved? Nothing really, after the smoke cleared, people had to find ways to live from one day to the next. Be positive, because there are positive solutions to every situation.

I agree,, there should be ways to deal with trouble spots before they get too much out of control. My point is why didn't the UK and France find this other way in Libya instead of dropping bombs on them. It's just that the US is criticized for the wars in Afghan and Iraq and not soon after the UK and France bomb Libya without much protest. The US is called a bully for using strong arm tactics yet Libya gets bombed without much of a complaint. I just feel that France and the UK, jumped to fast into bombing Libya without first trying to send in social workers as Rus has said.

[Gambino]

I read through most of this, skipped the big paragraphs which will probably make the same sort of point I go with, at least we (uk, us & Aus) are trying to do something, it's like anything involving Africa, the place is a dogs breakfast, but at least people are trying to do something to help the people, may not be doing it in a way that some of you agree with, but as a soldier, you may not agree with your governments motives, but you do your job for your brothers in arms and your family at home.

[Stavros]

I agree,, there should be ways to deal with trouble spots before they get too much out of control. My point is why didn't the UK and France find this other way in Libya instead of dropping bombs on them. It's just that the US is criticized for the wars in Afghan and Iraq and not soon after the UK and France bomb Libya without much protest. The US is called a bully for using strong arm tactics yet Libya gets bombed without much of a complaint. I just feel that France and the UK, jumped to fast into bombing Libya without first trying to send in social workers as Rus has said.

I think the UK and France were acting on advice from unreliable sources (as usual) which suggested that 'one big push' and the Qadhafi regime would fall as quickly as the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. There has always been a rift between Benghazi and Tripoli, so it was relatively easy for them to break away, and receive recognition and support from outside, but not easy at all to extend their revolution to the west, where smaller groups are fighting the regime without any unity. So we are now in a situation where neither side can gain effective control of the state as a whole, while Qadhafi and his sons think they can maintain the pressure on known areas of trouble without losing overall power; they have plenty of money salted away in bank accounts in Northern Cyprus and who knows where else.

In the case of Afghanistan, I think there are many people completely exhausted from 40 years of civil war, Jihadi or any kind of violence doesn't work. On balance its the problem that 10 men can make 10,000 tremble -and as long as foreign troops are there on the ground, they will divide opinion. Its not about 'social workers', its about reasonable people having the courage to engage with the general public and the public agreeing to stop supporting violence. Corrupt and inefficient govt doesn't help either.

[Ben]

Well, we'll pull out pretty soon. And, too, what have we accomplished? When we leave the Taliban will go back to running the place. Bin Laden fled. We didn't get him in Afghanistan.
There are, according to the CIA, only 50 Al Qaeda there.
And, too, how many Afghan civilians have died?????????
Or we could stay until, say, 2024 -- ha ha!

[Ben]

Afghanistan and American imperialism:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...medium=twitter

[russtafa]

the poor man has done three tours of duty and has reportedly suffered head injuries and now the government want to sacrifice the poor man to appease these barbarians,it's fucking disgusting

[russtafa]

i pity any man that has to watch these greasy ragheads scratching their bums and wanting murder anything non muslim

[Prospero]

So killing unarmed women and children in their beds is okay in your book, is it Russtafa?

[russtafa]

So killing unarmed women and children in their beds is okay in your book, is it Russtafa?

you cockhead you coward you would not even go there yah pussy and you demand this man's life how dear you you slithering worm you want to hand this poor man over to these slavering barbarians what the fuck are you?: