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Memo to Kevin Rudd: why are we in Afghanistan?

Article Excerpt
Defence policy did not receive much attention during the election campaign. Four commitments made by Kevin Rudd will determine the shape of Labor government defence policy under Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. The first is the commitment to maintain the Howard government's high rate of defence spending increases: at least 3 per cent a year through to 2016--more than one billion dollars extra each year. The second is the commitment to withdraw some troops from Iraq while maintaining the larger deployment in Afghanistan, as well as substantial deployments in East Timor and Solomon Islands. The third is the commitment to a review of defence strategic thinking in a new Defence White Paper, and the last is a strong and highly public reaffirmation of commitment to the US alliance. Unless there is substantial pressure on the government to review these commitments, Australia will largely continue on the path of foreign policy militarisation commenced under the Howard government, with all of the evident moral and strategically counter-productive consequences.

Rudd's most concrete policy commitment has been to withdraw troops from Iraq. At the same time he has strongly supported the even larger Afghanistan deployment, reflecting his 'bad war Iraq, good war Afghanistan' position. Yet as the war in Afghanistan costs even more lives and generates ever more counter-productive consequences, both a realistic accounting of Australian interests and the wider human...