Peace between and among nations is the most urgent and do-able globalization. This is not naïve nor utopian for the legacy from two world wars gave nations, under the United Nations charter, the legal framework to avoid wars.
In fact, it is illegal to wage war except under very clear circumstances; if attacked or if authorized by the UN’s Security Council.
None of these two conditions is applicable to Afghanistan. Afghanistan did not attack, the United States, Australia or any other nation and neither did the Afghan people who today suffer the tragic effects from occupying troops and civil war.
After eight years of this war, it is clear that Afghanistan is not a democracy. Of the nearly six million votes cast in the recent presidential elections the European Union Election Observation Mission to Afghanistan said about a quarter of all ballots were ‘suspicious’, putting one in every three votes for the incumbent Hamid Karzaiunder under question.
The position of women and the process of reconstruction has not fared better and whatever little gain has been made the Afghan people have paid a heavy price with continuous destruction and upheaval, a large loss of civilian life and lack of normality.
Norman Solomon of the US Institute for Public Accuracy “a deteriorating situation, in any human terms”. It has been a very expensive misadventure that is likely to become an issue as the war continues to bleed scarce public funds at a time of global financial and environmental needs.
According to the Center for Defense Information, the estimated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach $US864 billion this year.
In Australia the war in Afghanistan is budgeted to cost $1.2 billion in 2009-10. But, it is probably the cost of 11 Australian lives so far that has seen an increase of public opposition to the war.
A Newspoll published in The Australian in March this year found that nearly two-thirds of respondents were opposed to sending more troops to Afghanistan.
Killed in Afghanistan |
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Afghan troops killed (According to Unknown News: www.unknownnews.net) |
11,152
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A survey in September 2008 by the Lowy Institute for International Policy, suggested that people were more likely to see Australian actions in Afghanistan as support for the US alliance rather than a fight against international terrorism or an effort to back up local democracy.According to that survey 56% of Australians were opposed to continued military involvement and this was a 10-point jump on the 2007 figures.In the US there has been a similar shift in public sentiment against the war with a CNN poll released on September 2 showing that opposition to the war was at an all-time high. Nearly 60% opposed it while only just over 40% supported it.
And it seems that an increasing number of soldiers no longer have the stomach for killing. Desertion rates of US soldiers have skyrocketed. In November 2007 the Pentagon revealed that between 2003 and 2007 there was an 80% jump in desertion rates from the Army. More than 40,000 troops from all branches of the military deserted between 2000 and 2006 with more than half of those coming from the Army which saw its desertion rates jump by 42% from just 2006 to 2007.An so it should be for war is a barbaric option in resolving international conflicts and the days when one country can occupy another are long gone. Imagine the same funds and resources dedicated to war, and the preparation for wars that will never happen, being put to overcoming human misery. Now that is the way to win hearts and minds which the military minds in Afghanistan are struggling to do!
The world is now eight years away from the Twin Towers terrorist attack of September 11. Sober analysis shows that none of the alleged perpetrators were Afghan nationals. We know that the Taliban – a mixture of Pakistani and Afghani people, originally organized by the Pakistan intelligence ISI - are not Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is a network of fundamentalist Muslims from outside Afghanistan.
By any measure the war being waged in Afghanistan is not justified – certainly not as a way to capture or eliminate Al Qaeda. The war has made life worse for the Afghan people, not better. Remember, Afghanistan has been torn by civil war and war against foreign troops since 1979 – 30 years now. According to a report released on September 10 by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) the Taliban now has a permanent presence in 80% of Afghanistan, up from 72% in November 2008. According to ICOS, another 17% of Afghanistan is seeing ‘substantial’ Taliban activity. Taken together, these figures show that the Taliban has a significant presence in virtually all of Afghanistan. Therefore the Rudd Government must not blindly follow an expansion of the US intervention in the belief that it is making Australia and the world safer from terrorism. The signs are that this intervention could actually be counterproductive and Australia’s geopolitical interests may be better served by adopting a more independent foreign policy. It appears that a military victory over the Taliban is a lost cause and it is time to work for a political settlement on the basis of offering aid and development.
It will signal a significant step to globalize the peace and it can start by bringing the troops home – alive.
Source: Australian Options, Issue 58, Spring 2009, pp. 1-2.