PRESS RELEASE: 16 AUGUST 2010
PETER PYKE SENATE CANDIDATE FOR QUEENSLAND
PYKE WANTS AFGHANISTAN FORCES HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Senate candidate for Queensland and former-MP Peter Pyke today asked voters to poll all election candidates on their support for the next federal parliament to commence the withdrawal of Australian forces from Afghanistan.
On Saturday the Australian Defence Force (ADF) announced that another Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, making this latest casualty the 18th Australian death since the war began. June was the deadliest month for Australian soldiers after three commandos were killed in a helicopter crash in northern Kandahar.
Peter Pyke said he wished to convey his respect and deep gratitude to the family and friends and units and mates of all ADF personnel killed in action. “We also honour and deeply appreciate the sacrifices made by all of our defence force heroes who have been physically and psychologically harmed in this conflict and their families,” Mr Pyke said today.
Surveys show some 61 per cent of Australians are against the war in Afghanistan. On this issue, though, unlike other tough issues in this election campaign, both parties seem prepared to back each other up and stare down the polls. Both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott have said ‘our mission in Afghanistan is an important one because our nation cannot see Afghanistan once again become a safe haven for terrorism’.”
Implicit in these statements by both political leaders, though, Pyke says, is the advice that Afghanistan currently is not a terrorist training ground and Australians need to ask how you can combat the threat of international terrorism by waging an ongoing war in a country the terrorists have left?
“We also need to ask how can the Taliban – which is not al Qaeda – represent a risk to Australia’s national security?” Pyke says.
Mr Pyke says experts agree that our military presence in Afghanistan is ‘more likely to lead to acts of terrorism in Australia than prevent them’ and the true terrorism threat to Australia is from home-grown extremists, something acknowledged when the Prime Minister launched the Counter-Terrorism White Paper on 23 February this year.
“Coalition forces are waging war in Afghanistan despite the fact that UN Security Council resolutions 1368 and 1373 adopted before the US led invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 did not authorise the use of force, did not name Afghanistan and the United States did not seek specific legal support from the United Nations Security Council for its action in Afghanistan,” Pyke says.
Pyke says Australians must start asking the hard questions about why our young soldiers are still dying and being maimed in Afghanistan if al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden are no longer operating in Afghanistan. But, he says, the answer has already been provided by leading Australian journalist Michelle Grattan who says: “Australia will stay in Afghanistan as long as the Americans want us to, which means as long as the US is there. It is one of those commitments to the alliance. We do it even though the prospects of “victory” are probably bleak.”
Pyke says, “The real reason for Australia’s continuing involvement in Afghanistan is that of maintaining our close alliance with the US. So its about scoring diplomatic points, despite the understanding that being in Afghanistan makes us a bigger target for terrorists and our commitment to the US alliance seems to have again dragged Australian into another probably un-winnable war.”
Unlike Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, Senate candidate Peter Pyke says it is time to for politicians to have the courage to cease supporting Australia’s continuing military presence in Afghanistan.
Mr Pyke says he understands the value to the ADF of the practical on-ground involvement in Afghanistan and says as a Senator he has the stomach for tough defence decisions and this is one of them. He sees little chance of victory and only the inevitability of more young Australian lives sacrificed.
“It’s time for Australians to tell our politicians they want all of our boys and girls home from Afghanistan in time for Christmas,” says Peter Pyke.
Authorised by Peter Pyke, 135 Russell Street, Toowoomba, 4350. 0427 388 598
www.republicandemocrats.org.au
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