Afghanistan war a 'great lie': Wilkie


Independent Andrew Wilkie has launched a savage attack on Australia's Afghan war, calling it "a great lie" peddled by both sides of politics.

The former intelligence analyst said the West confronts a dreadful dilemma, which will end in disaster, in Afghanistan.

Mr Wilkie, who won the previously safe Tasmanian Labor seat of Denison, turned his first speech to parliament into an emotional attack on Australia's military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He also pleaded for curbs on poker machines and more help for people with mental health problems.

Mr Wilkie said his politics was rooted in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when he resigned from the Office of National Assessments to go public on how the Howard government "spun, skewed, fabricated and cherry-picked the intelligence to prop up their case for war".

He said the Iraq war's architects had no care for the consequences.

"There's no chance of them or any of their loved ones lying in the chill desert night air paralysed with fear, or being gutted alive by razor-sharp shrapnel, or losing a foot or worse from a mine or cluster bomblet, or having the flesh burned from their bones as they sit trapped in their blazing vehicles," he said.

Mr Wilkie said the focus had shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan where the international community, including Australia, confronted a dreadful dilemma.

"On the one hand it could walk away from the seemingly inevitable disaster that would unfold," he said.

"Or it can stay and fight, as it plans to, in the hope of somehow avoiding a different but equally inevitable disaster."

Mr Wilkie said it didn't have to be like this, with an opportunity lost when the US virtually withdrew to prepare for the Iraq invasion.

The one bright spot, that Afghanistan no longer exports Islamic extremism, is dulled by the fact that the extremists have crossed the border into Pakistan.

Moreover, the Islamic terrorist threat morphed years ago into a global network independent of one leader or safe haven.

"That we must stay in Afghanistan to protect Australia from terrorism is a great lie peddled by both the government and opposition," he said.

Both parties seemed to think Australia's involvement is somehow a measure of the strength of its relationship with the US.

"Neither seems to understand that Canberra would be at less risk of being taken for granted in Washington if sometimes we just said 'No'," he said.

australia would be well served to distance itself from US foreign

policy

namaste

all are forgiven unconditionally

-:)

The American’s are already stocking weapons and preparing for battle. I don’t think the reality of September 11 hit home base with all the rednecks out there.  No doubt just like the words of Ahmadinejad the other week at the U.N General Assembly in New York, 'The discriminatory capitalist system is failing'. The economy is not recovering. Not now, not ever. The systematic failure is inevitable with irrefutable mathematics proving this exact case.

What did you expect from a world such as ours? I mean here we are in Australia the fortunate ones. I think personally many native Australians lack personal cultural experience from other much poorer nations to truly comprehend our lucky we actually are. I mean our materialistic culture is absolutely disgraceful. People paying hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for a 2cent tag on a piece of clothing made with the same material you find in a gutter. Individuality, you know how it is, empty attention seeking human beings these days going out of their own way to be different. Sadly they forget that it’s the very fact that they all seek to be different is what makes them all the same. They aren’t the ones at fault, its society that chooses everything from their beliefs to their basic characteristics as a human being.

The current Australian government insisting we are in Afghanistan to avoid another incident such as September 11 is unacceptable. We must be better than this, we must have more integrity than this.
So I ask, what are we going to do about this situation here? I hope we have a bit more intelligence than to endorse stashing weapons.
This cannot go on.