The tenth Australian soldier to be killed this year fighting in Afghanistan was announced on 25th August. Due to Obama's escalation of the war the killing of soldiers and civilians alike has spiked this year. Nine Australians have died in the past three months alone. Since 2001, more than 150 troops have also been wounded during the conflict including many who have lost limbs and suffered grave injuries. The Australian toll in this war of American imperialism pails to the price being paid by Afghan civilians with with over 1200 in the first six months of this year according to the UN. Its time for the Australian troops to be pulled out of this war that only serves to benefit the U.S. Empire.
Whilst Gillard pulled out the same platitudes of condolences for the dead soldiers family, we have just come out of an election campaign where the major parties and the media conspired to cover up any debate over this unpopular war. Its time for the peace movement to ramp up our opposition to this war and demand Australia pulls out all its troops. The argument that this nine year war is not helping the people of Afghanistan but continues the suffering of its people and is now destablising neighboring Pakistan as well. The war is being prosecuted by the U.S. to help sure up its control of this geo=politically important region which not only neighbors the oil rich Middle East(it borders Iran) but also helps contains the rise of Chinese influence in the region.
For an anti-occupation and anti-Taliban position check out the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan RAWA.
Join a Facebook site demanding the Australian groups are pulled out.
Comments
Fractures and Dissent -Australian War on Afghanistan
by Ciaron O'Reilly
When I left Australia in May 2010, the OZ military fatalities in Afghanistan stood at 11 over the previous 9 years. They have now doubled in the last few months including the death of an Irish born man from Carlow serving with the Australian SAS. Australian fatlities.....
http://www.icasualties.org/oef/Nationality.aspx?hndQry=...ralia
Also a potential fracture is evident in the dragged out inquiry into the Australian military killing Afghani children. See below....
"THE Director of Military Prosecutions wants to take the unprecedented step of charging several Defence Force commandos with the deaths of five children during a raid in Afghanistan last year.
While the Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade, has not made her final decision, the prospect of charges has infuriated senior officers, with the Chief of Army, Lieutenant-General Ken Gillespie, and other commanders expressing concern in writing.
Some in the Defence hierarchy are concerned it will further erode public support for the war and undermine the way soldiers operate in Afghanistan.
Continued.....
http://www.smh.com.au/world/diggers-face-likely-charges....html
I grew up on the back of Enoggera/Gallipoli Barracks during the Vietnam War when young men were being shipped off to kill and die for the USA in south east Asia.
My mother had three uncles who had been shipped through the barracks to the killing fields in the "war to end all wars". It was a time when the Australian military were more accurately named the "Australian Imperial Forces". They are now branded the Australian Defense Forces and servicing American rather than British imperialism.
Whenever I am based in Brisbane along with the Catholic Worker network we have been able to maintain a weekly anti-war vigil outside the Barracks. Our interactions with soldeirs departing and returning from Iraq and Afghanistran have been varied and interesting. As with civil society in other parts of the imperial heartland, Australians remain largely disengaged nine years into this war on Afghanistan. There is no visible support for the war, there is no visible opposition...ther is just the escalating war. The politicians spouting their sentimental shite whenever a young soldier, they have sent to kill and be killed, dies.
In the last few weeks a number of the soldiers based at the Enoggera/Gallipoli barracks have been killed in Afghanistan.
A recent positive development was this demonstration by Australian military veterans at the gates of the barracks. See report and vid....
http://stand-fast.webs.com/news.htm