Sacrificing the lives of young Australians for no purpose

Major-General Alan Stretton, Mission over in Afghanistan; time to bring troops home

With three more Australian deaths over the weekend and another seven wounded, how long will it be before both our political parties realise they are sacrificing the lives of young Australians for no purpose?

The spectacle of politicians from both parties agreeing to send our finest Australians to their deaths and then appearing on television offering their condolences to grieving widows and relatives is sickening.

The policy that we can train the Afghan army to take over security in Afghanistan is laughable. The Afghan government is corrupt, and its army has been penetrated by Taliban forces whose main activity is killing allied forces operating in their country.

Elements of the Australian Defence Force have now been in Afghanistan for over 10 years -- surely this is long enough.

Major-General Alan Stretton (ret), Batemans Bay, NSW

Yes, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, how many more lives have to be sacrificed before stopping this madness?

We are sacrificing the lives of young Australians rather than (a) admitting the mistake of Muslim immigration into the West and (b) recognising that clear-eyed anti-terrorism begins by containing our local Muslim population.

File under: the body count of the ideology of diversity.