There is a historical parallel between the invasion of the Gallipoli beaches and headlands and the contemporary invasion of Afghanistan.
There is no cogent national interest involved, or appeal to just war theory as a measure of the last resort. No in both cases it was difference to the imperial scheme. Dishonest motivations have to be covered by cringing and stupidfying protestations of glory in slaughter.
George Orwell saw what passed in his day, and can rest easy knowing what is happening now. The less than inspiring Defence Minister has found himself to the battleground in Afghanistan. Alicia Wood reports in The Sydney Morning Herald:
AUSTRALIAN soldiers in Afghanistan have killed about 80 Taliban fighters in a major operation, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon revealed last night.
The minister, who secretly visited troops “outside the wire” in Oruzgan Province before attending an Anzac Day dawn service at Tarin Kowt yesterday, said the firefights occurred as part of two combat missions by Special Forces and other allied troops over a three-week period.
He said other soldiers involved in mentoring the Afghan National Army had cleared an area where Taliban insurgents killed Australian Corporal Mathew Hopkins last month.
“I think too often they hear the bad news, particularly when we suffer fatal casualties. I think these briefings are important to demonstrate that we are making real progress,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
The latest battle, against 40 insurgents, 12 kilometres from Australia’s main base at Tarin Kowt, is being hailed as a major blow to the Taliban.
Members of the Australian Special Operations Task Group and the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force began the operation in March.
Afghanistan, in contrast to Iraq, is the good war. The people killed there are described as Taliban – which they may or may not be. Whether, or not they are Taliban they have done nothing to harm us. What kind of person separates the death of any human being in such circumstances, because they are not Australians? They at least can be said to be defending their homeland, which is more cause for honour than any invader can have. The deeper truth is that we are all human beings.
The Afghan National Army is probably as good a proposition as the Israeli Army or the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or any of the other agents of imperialism. The government of Afghanistan was established by the Northern Alliance, so perhaps now they are the Afghan National Army.
DISTANCE AND DISPASSION
The human beings killed by the Australian Army had no names and personal stories. They did not need to be dehumanized. The paper could report their lives as if they did not exist. They had no reality to their killers, who may conceivably have better weapons systems and the comfort of distance. Unlikely in the extreme, they were characterized as imperialists always do in foreign lands as “terrorists”, rather than as nationalists, or perhaps more accurately in Afghanistan “tribal patriots”.
Torture is different. Torture is personal. The consequences for the torturers, as it was in the early Sydney jail, is often more striking for the torturers than those with whom they inflict pain and suffering. Alyssa Peterson is a relevant story.
ELSEWHERE:
Harvey Broadbent recasts the possible reason for the Gallipoli Campaign whose objectives were negated by the October Revolution.
David Wearing at Democracy Now is the reference to Rethinking Afghanistan which he says is a great source of information.