Australian Election - What Happened To Afghanistan?

According to the head of the Australian armed forces, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the Australian forces, along with the pro-occupation Afghan Army units they are responsible for training, have intensified their activities and are “going into areas” where they have not been before, resulting in bloody engagements with local resistance fighters.
At least four of the other recent deaths occurred in the nearby province of Kandahar, the main stronghold of the Taliban. These deaths were the direct result of a decision taken by the Australian government to make Australian special forces’ units available to the US military for use in the current Kandahar offensive.
Neither the Labour nor Liberal parties raised or explained the escalation of Australian combat operations in Afghanistan during the election campaign. It was not mentioned in any of the so-called debates between  Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Nor was it made a point of political opposition by the Greens, which claim to oppose the war but are seeking to enter a post-election de-facto coalition government with either of the major parties. The bipartisan support within the Australian political establishment for the war in Afghanistan and the indefinite commitment of Australian troops was on display again yesterday, as news broke of the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney. MacKinney died during a three-hour “intense firefight” in an area to the west of Tarin Kowt, the main occupation base in Uruzgan.

Gillard declared the death was “dreadful”, then went on to insist that while the Afghan war was “dangerous and difficult” it was “also vital work.” She again refused to put a timetable on withdrawing Australian troops, stating only that they had a “defined mission” to train Afghan government forces, which would most likely be completed within two to four years.
Abbott likewise stated that the war was “vital for the security of our country and the wider world and now is not the time to waver in our commitment”. Repeating the standard propaganda employed to justify the criminal operation, Abbott declared: “I’m not going to put limits on Australia’s commitment to do its bit to rid the world of terrorism.”
The utter fraud of the claims that Australian troops are killing and being killed in Afghanistan to fight terrorism gained a rare airing in the media yesterday, after Andrew Wilkie, an independent candidate in Saturday’s election, attacked the justification as a lie.
While counting has not yet been finalised, Wilkie, who stood against both the Labour and Liberal parties, will likely win the seat of Denison, in Tasmania. In 2003, as the US and its allies, including the Howard government in Australia, were ramping up their “war on terror” rhetoric to justify the invasion of Iraq, Wilkie, a former Army officer, resigned in protest from his position as an intelligence analyst for the Office of National Assessments, attacking the claims that the Iraqi regime possessed large quantities of “weapons of mass destruction”. Good on yer, mate.