I hope nobody missed this segment on Dateline tonight. That Brigadier got a grilling, and had absolutely nothing to respond with. He was shaking constantly whilst speaking... trembling, knowing full well he was being exposed on national TV as a liar and apologist for the senseless slaughter of civilians

---

http://media.sbs.com.au/dateline/images/site_2_rand_134526399_diggers_0107_h2.jpg

As the civilian death toll in the war against the Taliban climbs ever higher, locals are increasingly angry over the presence of foreign troops in war torn Afghanistan.

Sophie McNeill reports that even the elected representative in the national parliament for Oruzgan province, is vehemently opposed to the Australian forces based there.  

Hajii Abdul Khaliq claims Australian troops killed and injured his family members - a charge the Australian Defence Force rejects. It's just one of several deadly incidents involving  Australian forces and civilians examined by Dateline in the lead up to Afghanistan's elections in August.

Is Australia losing the battle for hearts and minds?

Find out more this Sunday on Dateline, 8:30pm on SBS ONE.

And at 9.30pm, check out Dateline video journalist Sophie McNeill in the premiere of Journos, a new 5-part series which follows the lives of Australian journalists working around the world.

Watch:
http://player.sbs.com.au/web/flash/inline_video_player_application.swf

Source: SBS/Dateline

Well I suppose it depends on who you choose to believe eh.

Personally after listening to the witnesses particularly 1 I already came to the same conclusion the Officer being interviewed put forward.  Didn't you?  
Oh right youre biased and deluded I keep forgetting.

You gotta have proof Abooby.

As for Haji...  maybe they are maybe they aren't.  Certainly they aren't in Iraq.  or just about in any other theatre of war except by the enemy.

What do the polls say?

We are certainly not over there for the 'oil', or the diamonds, or the gold. We are there because if we just let the place again become a failed state, we'll have another group of airliners flown into skyscrapers.

So we are there, because we have to be. Sorry if that is inconvenient, and if because jihadis hide amongst civilians, civilians die. But that's just the way these guys play ball.

We tried slick Willy's way of ignoring them and hoping they'd go away - but that just got us 9/11. So we have to stick around, and it is just regrettable if there is some 'consumer resistance' on the ground in Afghanistan.

Quote:

We are certainly not over there for the 'oil', or the diamonds, or the gold.

That's right, our former PM who led us there was too stupid and besotted by Bush to actually demand anything for sending Aussies to die there  ;D


Quote:

So we are there, because we have to be.

We're there because of a phenomenon described quite colourfully by Mr. Mark Latham.

abu_rashid wrote on Jul 13^th, 2009 at 7:50pm:

That's right, our former PM who led us there was too stupid and besotted by Bush to actually demand anything for sending Aussies to die there  ;D

I wouldn't say stupid... but besotted... for sure. It is an occupational hazard with Australian Prime Ministers (and many other world leaders), that they are mesmerised by American Presidents... Echoes of Holt's 'All the way with LBJ' or Hawke's warm embrace of Bush snr.

Not that the cause is wrong, however. It's just that our Prime Ministers seem to lose it at the thought of Presidential attention.

Despite the title, there doesn't seem to be much interest here in what the Afghanis actually want, even from Abu.  :(