Australian eyewitness in Afghanistan slams Aussie military role

An Australian woman recently returned from Afghanistan says foreign militaries have been a hindrance to peace and stability and is leading to increased civilian casualties.

"It is clear that the Australian Government has spent billions of dollars propping up a corrupt and violent regime that is harassing their own population who are working for peace and democracy" Jessica Morrison said.

"People scoff at the Parliament, saying that the best thing about it is that it puts all the most dangerous people in the one place and keeps them occupied." she continued.

Jessica Morrison is a 35yr old University Lecturer and Melbourne resident who travelled independently in Kabul for two weeks.

In Afghanistan Jessica met with: peace groups; educational centres; orphanages; women's groups and international aid workers.

"I met many competent and inspiring local people who are working for a stable, safe and democratic Afghanistan. However people believe that the Australian military involvement is not progressing these aims. We need to seriously re-examine Australian foreign policy in Afghanistan"

The report comes as another Australian soldier is delivered home to be buried by his South Australian family. Jamie Larcombe was the 23rd Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan.

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Comments

Nice story, and I bet it's true ... but no way to verify apart from ootentially stalking/harassing the named person, ie it could be bait for a distributed attack at an individual, or the individual simply may not exist but we have no way to know except to follow up...

Why post a story as Anonymous if you give full name, age and occupation of a supposedly living human being in the story? Is this a press release? Why not link to other places where it's been filed (sites exist which do nothing else ... for example) ... perhaps send as a letter-to-editor to mainstream papers and then list them here, even if they do not print it ... etc ...

Indymedia is great for getting suppressed news out or telling another angle or a personal story, but I prefer not to spend time reading stuff of unknown veracity. The forum is useful, but you have to make some more effort to compensate the freedom to publish what-the-fuck-you-like anonymously, since that freedom has been oft abused here, and elsewhere, in the past, to spread bullshit and to disinform.

Yours sincerely,

A. Random Passerby

Yeh two weeks n Kabul thats a long time to get the feel of what is happening does she even speak Arabic? Women groups she met with dont make us laugh.
Did she meet with Australian soldiers ? or was it a one sided view "A Womans View"
This woman is 35 and still hasn't left school when she starts to live in the real world we will listen.

Little point in speaking Arabic in Kabul...

Perhaps Dari or Pashto might be more useful.

But the point is valid, two weeks doesn't make her informed, never mind an expert.