Afghanistan war debate in the parliament: the rhetoric vs real commitments

At last, we had parliamentary debate over the Australian participation in war on Afghanistan. Two days of intense debate. Then it was ended with no result, so far. In Arabic we say: The mountain got into labour, but gave birth to a mouse.

We had the opportunity to hear all empty rhetoric of all sides: The Labor and Liberals competing to show support for Americans. The Greens empty rhetoric on necessity to leave Afghanistan after causalities increased. Independents argue that we will not win the war.

Then the show finished. All parties went to their air-conditioned offices happy that they scored political points.

But the Australian participation in the war is still reality. The Afghani people are still under brutal occupation. And Australian soldiers are still killing innocent Afghanis and become sometimes casualties.

Well done Andrew Willkie and the Greens. They could change the atmosphere inside the parliament and get some debate on issues with different “flavour”.

I envy these politicians’ ability to change their skins regularly and sometimes on weekly basis.

Was not this the same Andrew Willkie that demanded 2 years ago that the Australian troops need to stay in Afghanistan to “finish the job” and not leaving it to extreme Taliban?

Was not this the same Bob Brown who earlier blamed John Howard and George Bush administrations for not sending enough troops to kill as many Afghanis as possible to crush the resistance?

What a shame!!!

Did we forget this? Do Brown and Willkie count on the short memory of nations?

But we notice that their change of skin was not complete.

Both Bob Brown and Andrew Willkie are demanding the troops withdrawal because we cannot crush resistance. And because Australian troops cannot crush resistance, some of them get killed or wounded. This is the main argument they made in the last few days.

They did not demand the troops withdrawal because any occupation is illegal. They did not show any empathy for Afghani causalities, which mount to thousands every year. They do not care about the devastation of Afghani society and the collapse of all infrastructures.

Both were crying because we lost 21 soldiers in Afghanistan. But I did not hear them cry because this illegal and brutal war killed thousands of Afghani, made millions refugees in neighbouring countries and deprived Afghani from basic rights and basic life needs.

We know very well that both Willkie and Brown were very silent on this vital issue since the invasion in 2001 until this year. We know very well that these politicians are populist ones that are after some media attention, only. Hence they were deadly silent when Taliban was weak, and woke up when Taliban became very sophisticated and killed in this year 600 foreign occupying soldiers, so far.

But we know that in politics and in life the most important is the result. So what is the result of this big loud media circus initiated by those politicians (The Greens and Willkie)?

Absolutely nothing. No changes whatsoever.

So Mr Willkie and Brown: please give us break.

We know very well that you are after some votes, even if they will be mixed with a lot of blood: Blood of Afghanis, not only of Australians.

And we know very well that you do not give a damn about the brutality of this war. We know very well that you do not care of how bad the Afghanis live in their country. We know very well that your debate and your words are merely empty rhetoric to fool us to give you our vote in the coming-very-soon election. We know all this, so please go to hell.

We notice that you never issued media release when innocent Afghanis were killed by foreign troops (including Australians). We never saw your tears shed when Afghani villages were erased from the map by foreign troops. We did not hear you mentioning the numbers of children killed by occupying forces. We never, to date, hear your position on Australians tried for crimes against Afghanis.

So please stop playing politics with blood of innocent people. If you are serious, take actions.

The agreement with Labor demanded only to open a debate. No demands of specific outcomes. No demands of committee to follow on implementing the debate outcomes (if there will be outcomes ever).

Again, please stop treating Afghani dead bodies as votes on polling booths. We are sick from your cheap politics, so please stop.

Please respect our intelligence, and to lesser extent our feelings.