http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/afghanistan/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-afghanistan-trust-no-one-and-question-everything/ In yet another attack by a ‘rogue’ Afghan soldier, four French troops were shot dead last week. Proponents of the current post-modern war fighting doctrine continue to believe we can make people love us.  Counterinsurgency has been a convenient doctrine swallowed by Western leaders as a politically correct way to fight a war. But it is built on the well-meaning principle of “hearts and minds” when it is nothing more than an unhealthy blend of social engineering and pork-barrel politics.  The fact is in Afghanistan they love you until the money stops and even then, as the latest incidents show, nothing will bridge the cultural divide. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-afghanistan-trust-no-one-and-question-everything/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-afghanistan-trust-no-one-and-question-everything/#item7586 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/biggest-moments-of-2011-afghans-turn-on-aussies/ What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/biggest-moments-of-2011-afghans-turn-on-aussies/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/biggest-moments-of-2011-afghans-turn-on-aussies/#item7392 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/As-we-remember-our-fallen-we-forget-why-we-went-to-war/ It’s Remembrance Day. And this year, we have more to remember than ever. Ashley Birt, 22. Bryce Duffy, 26. Luke Gavin, 29. Rowan Robinson, 23. Todd Langley, 35. They’re all diggers killed in Afghanistan, and that’s just since June. While we’re remembering them though, we need to jog our memories a little further. Because over the course of this Very Long War in Afghanistan, there’s a lot that we’ve forgotten. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/As-we-remember-our-fallen-we-forget-why-we-went-to-war/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/As-we-remember-our-fallen-we-forget-why-we-went-to-war/#item7124 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/afghanistan-it-is-the-manner-of-our-leaving-that-matters/ The recent string of casualties inflicted on Australian trainers by their Afghan students is part of the ongoing tragedy of war. It is also not making the job of selling the Afghan War to the Australian population any easier. A recent Roy Morgan poll says that 72 per cent of Australians want to withdraw the troops. That’s good because we are, of course, going to withdraw and our casualties must be seen in that context. The withdrawal date is already set as 2014 and barring some strategic change, our combat troops will leave. The Prime Minister has announced that there will be an ongoing training commitment to Afghanistan, but the detail is unclear. Of course, if there were no consequences for the withdrawal of our troops, they would have been withdrawn long ago. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/afghanistan-it-is-the-manner-of-our-leaving-that-matters/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/afghanistan-it-is-the-manner-of-our-leaving-that-matters/#item7115 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/another-rogue-afghan-soldier-not-proof-of-sleeper-insurgency/ The latest shooting of three Australian and two Afghan soldiers by a disgruntled Afghan comrade will intensify calls for our 1550 troops to be withdrawn immediately. Details of the incident are sketchy, but given that the shooter escaped in a vehicle it is safe to assume that he was not a jihadist fanatic on a one-way suicide mission. That was certainly not the case 10 days ago when an Afghan called Darwish opened fire at close range at Forward Operating Base Pacemaker in northern Kandahar Province killing Captain Bryce Duffy, 26, Corporal Ashley Birt, 22, and Lance Corporal Luke Gavin, 27. Darwish had shaved and cleansed his body and dressed in white clothing to prepare for his journey into the next life following his murderous mission. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/another-rogue-afghan-soldier-not-proof-of-sleeper-insurgency/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/another-rogue-afghan-soldier-not-proof-of-sleeper-insurgency/#item7111 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/operation-your-mum-on-the-ground-in-tarin-kowt/ Writer, comedian and Can of Worms reporter Dan Ilic visited Aussie diggers in Afghanistan last month to perform a series of comedy shows. He writes about his time in Tarin Kowt in this second part of a two-part report. Read the first part here. The next stop on the trip was the Australian stronghold of Tarin Kowt. We flew there on an Australian Chinook, a large transport helicopter that can fit about 40 soldiers and gear. This was an amazing journey. Flying tactically, we buzzed across the Afghan terrain only about a hundred metres off the ground, hugging the valleys and mountains for cover. In the back of my head I knew that only a few weeks before an American Chinook got shot down carrying 30 Special Forces troops. But somehow this was suppressed by the sheer excitement of being in a big loud flying machine. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/operation-your-mum-on-the-ground-in-tarin-kowt/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/operation-your-mum-on-the-ground-in-tarin-kowt/#item7060 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/My-kandahar-comedy-show-that-literally-bombed/ Writer, comedian and Can of Worms reporter Dan Ilic visited Aussie diggers in Afghanistan last month to perform a series of comedy shows. Today, he writes about what he saw and experienced, in the first of a two-part report. Here are some tips for comedians. Never try out new jokes to a hostile crowd. If you do, keep it short. Whatever you do, don’t go out to an unfamiliar audience and give them 15 minutes of new material you wrote just for them until you’ve actually learnt all the jokes. I did this recently on stage in front of a crowd of about 50. I could tell the gig was going to be dull. It’s called Funny Shui: the audience all self-consciously sit as far away as possible from the stage. I couldn’t even make eye contact with this group. Showtime. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/My-kandahar-comedy-show-that-literally-bombed/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/My-kandahar-comedy-show-that-literally-bombed/#item7058 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-are-doing-the-right-thing-in-afghanistan/ Three more Australians are dead, and seven injured, in Afghanistan. It’s even more tragic because it appears the killer was an Afghan soldier, a colleague. Follow the news at news.com.au. Nathan Mullins spent time with the Australian Special Forces in Oruzgan, and this is his perspective on the many questions that beset Australia about our role in Afghanistan. What are ‘we’ doing in Afghanistan? People ask me whether we can win the war. That’s not the important question. The question is whether we should be trying to ‘win’ in the first place. But before that the question is: who’s ‘we’? We the Coalition, we the Australian Army, we Australians, or indeed, we the western world? It’s a long way from Melbourne to Afghanistan, both geographically and figuratively, but when I had the chance to fight in the hills and valleys of Uruzgan with the Australian Special Forces, I did it. I needed to know if ‘we’ should be there. When I decided to go I thought I represented the Australian Army. While I was there I realized that the people of Afghanistan feel isolated from the rest of the world. They didn’t see me as an Australian soldier, or an Australian really, they saw me as a citizen of a world that was so foreign to them as to barely exist. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-are-doing-the-right-thing-in-afghanistan/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-are-doing-the-right-thing-in-afghanistan/#item6995 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/umm-maybe-he-shouldnt-have-joined-the-taliban/ In her excoriating review of David Hicks’ memoir My Journey, ABC reporter and author Leigh Sales begins with the following assessment of the blame-shifting psychology of the former Taliban recruit: “A sentence near the end of this controversial book encapsulates David Hicks’s attitude to his stay at Guantanamo Bay on terrorism-related charges:‘Any and all inconvenience . . . was brought about due to my incarceration and treatment and that was at the hands of others.’ “In other words, Hicks eschews personal responsibility. Guantanamo: My Journey is a flawed memoir, chiefly because of an astonishing lack of self-reflection.” feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/umm-maybe-he-shouldnt-have-joined-the-taliban/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/umm-maybe-he-shouldnt-have-joined-the-taliban/#item6549 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/six-famous-war-films-and-their-lessons-for-our-leaders/ Yesterday, News Ltd national defence writer Ian McPhedran argued that it’s our moral duty to stay the course in Afghanistan, both to honour fallen diggers and for the sake of the mission itself. Many ordinary people took exception, arguing the best way to honour the fallen is to withdraw from the whole exercise. In any war in which Australia is involved, mainstream public figures rarely question our commitment to the conflict. To do so is seen as the equivalent of saying the fallen died for nothing. Ordinary people know better. In war, as in life, the ground shifts. The perfectly valid reason you got involved several years back may no longer hold up today. Funny thing is, war movies have long echoed this theme. Maybe it’s time our leaders took a trip to the video store… feedback@thepunch.com.au (Antony McMullen) Behind the picture http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/six-famous-war-films-and-their-lessons-for-our-leaders/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/six-famous-war-films-and-their-lessons-for-our-leaders/#item6045 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000 What happened Our biggest wartime horror in a long time. Three diggers and their Afghan interpreter were killed and seven other Aussie troops wounded when an Afghan army ally turned his weapon on them. This was not the first time that an Afghan colleague attacked Australian soldiers this year and nor was it the last. Lance Corporal Andrew Jones was killed by an Afghan soldier as he came out of his base accommodation in May. And just last month three diggers and two Afghans were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire from a guard tower with an automatic weapon and grenade launcher. What happened next A serious erosion of trust between Australian troops and their Afghan allies.