By REGINALD RENAGI
As in the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, Australia has again caught itself up in a strategic political entrapment situation with the US in a protracted insurgency war in Afghanistan.
It is time new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard review Australia's foreign policy on Afghanistan.
PM Gillard must now not be seen to promote her last two predecessor's same policy of keeping Australian troops in Afghanistan longer than is necessary.
The longer this policy remains unchanged, more Australian troops will die and return home in coffins.
It is time Australia critically reviews her direct involvement in the eight-year war in Afghanistan.
I believe the US military occupation of Afghanistan will end up being unsuccessful as time goes on.
If you do not believe me, then learn from history.
Australia must lean from its Vietnam history.
The Soviet Union lost its insurgency war in Afghanistan.
In 1986, the Soviet generals found to their great disappointment that after seven years no single piece of land in that country had been occupied by a Soviet soldier and the majority of the territory still remained in the hands of rebels.
Soon after, the Soviets withdrew from their Afghan misadventure.
Thousands were dead on both sides, yet the occupation failed to produce a stable national Afghan government.
This same scenario is being replayed in stark contrast.
I am sure Australian military planners know this.
The Australian government must now critically reassess its continued involvement in a volatile situation that has trapped Australia to stay on regardless of what it may mean in a matter of time - total defeat.
This is an insurgency like in Vietnam with no end in sight as to when to pull troops out and go home.
Australia has no real "exit-strategy" and neither does the US.
This may be a poor excuse for Australia that Julia Gillard can correct.
All Australians will be right behind her and this may well win her the federal elections for the ALP this year.
The US and the coalition forces are now eight years into this so-called war against terror in Afghanistan.
The present US strategy is flawed and what happened to the Soviets will also happen again to the US, Australia and the coalition force.
Australia must not be blind to what the US says it is in that country for.
A big part of the problem stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation.
The US seems to ignore the fact that it is its very presence as occupiers that feeds the insurgency in Afghanistan.
This would be the case if Papua New Guinea was invaded and occupied by a foreign force (s).
All diverse groups would put aside their disagreements to unify against a common foe -foreign occupation.
For all its technology know-how, like the Soviets, the US will not win this so-called war against terror.
This is what has happened in Afghanistan.
Australia should by now have worked this very problem out.
The US has got it really wrong.
Adding more US troops will only assist those who recruit fighters to attack US/coalition troops.
The enemy is effectively using the US occupation to convince villages to side with the Taliban.
As in Vietnam when Australia was caught out with the US in a political entrapment, Afghanistan is no different.
With no real workable strategy in Afghanistan, without a vision of what victory will look like, the US is left with the empty rhetoric of the last administration that “when the Afghan people stand up, the US will stand down”.
I believe the only solution to the Afghanistan quagmire is a rapid and complete US withdrawal including Australia too from that country, and the region.
Australia cannot afford to maintain its long involvement with the US in this unnecessary war that is hitting the Australian taxpayers hard with the prospects of more young Australian lives lost.
The continued coalition occupation of Afghanistan will not make Australia any safer.
With that short analysis, I say to Julia Gillard, it's time to pull our Aussie troops out of Afghanistan now.
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