Eight reasons to get out of Afghanistan

1. Life is getting worse for most Afghans under occupation. Life expectancy is 43 years. Access to water is 31% of households. Adult literacy is just 24%. Some 50% of children are malnourished.
2. More and more people are dying. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has estimated that 4654 civilians have died between January 2007 and June 2009, however total deaths haven’t been collected. 1370 coalition troops have died since beginning of war.
3. The coalition forces are spreading the war into Pakistan. Military raids and unmanned drones have taken the war into the North-West Frontier regions of Pakistan. Under US pressure the Pakistan army has attacked the Swat valley and displaced some 2 million people.
4. The war has cost us billions over the past 8 years. The Rudd government has budgeted the Afghanistan war to cost $1.2 billion in 2009-10, a 50% increase over previous years along with another 500 troops.
5. We were told that the war in Afghanistan would liberate women. Recent figures show that only 4% of women reach 10th grade schooling, and violence against women is endemic. In a bid for fundamentalist support, the Karzai government has passed a law allowing rape in marriage.
6. The war has not brought democracy. Preliminary figures indicate that only 30% voted in the recent elections. US backed Hamid Karzai has been implicated in fraud involving up to 800 fake polling booths and another 800 were used to register fake votes. Many are comparing Karzai with South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem.
7. The majority of the world wants the troops to leave. An Age/Nielsen poll in March revealed 65% opposed Kevin Rudd's decision to send more troops there and 51% opposed the war outright. These figures are mirrored in America and Britain. 75% of Americans are opposed to any troop increases.
8.The majority of Afghans do not want the war. Malalai Joya, an elected Afghan MP and women’s rights advocate, recently toured Australia saying that “people are squashed today between two enemies: an internal and an external enemy ... if the troops withdraw, then it is an easier fight with one enemy”.