The wounds left behind by the taliban in Afghanistan will take many decades to heal. The legacy of absolute islamic fundamentalism, and the repression of human rights therein, will last for generations.... with or without successful democratic change in Afghanistan.

Right now, as John Howard talks up the success of the Australian involvement in the attack on Iraq, there are peasants in Iraq with houses reduced to rubble by American bombs and barely enough to eat because of the 10 years of crippling economic sanctions placed on their national economy (again the work of Americans).

Right now in Iran, it's a crime punishable by death, to commit adultery, commit an act of political violence or worship a god other then Allah.

In North Korea, people are plagued with nightly power blackouts, little to eat, political repression, permanent exile from family in the south and a Government more concerned with the dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons then it is with its people.

I could keep going. I could continue listing the many nations around the world, whose people face similar situations. However I end the list here because these are the nations with which Australia has already been, or could potentially be, at war with at some stage in the present decade.

I am not going to contend (atleast not right now anyway) that this is the wrong thing to do. I am not going to sit here, snug behind my computer, and argue that Australia shouldn't have sent troops to Afghanistan in support of America, or that Saddam Hussein is a good man and that his removal from the political scene in Iraq is a bad thing, or that one so unstable and unpredictable as the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il Sun should be allowed to develop a program of Nuclear Proliferation.

Why would i argue such things? When Islamic Socialism denies basic human rights of its subjects, then that is not consistent with what we as Australians believe in. When Dictators deny their subjects a modicum of prosperity so as to better pursue an agressive build up of arms. Then that too, is inconsistent with what we as Australians believe in. Worse still is when such actions not only contravene what we concider moral practice, but either directly or indirectly threaten our way of life or indeed, our very lives. When morally corrupt practice leads to a direct threat to Australia, then thats when its clear that we have an obligation to follow America into battle.

Because there are certain value systems in the world, that we simply and utterly reject.

Bearing this in mind, consider how confused Iraqi refugees, having fled the tyranny of Saddam, must be to know that Australia feels the same way as they about Saddam Hussein, and yet Australia - the land of their freedom - makes every effort to have them sent back to Iraq, the very land from which they've managed to escape, the very nation that we helped to turn into the giant bomb crater that it is.

How strange it must seem to the rest of the world, that Australia rejected all those innocent families that reject the same fundamentalist regimes that we do. How confused Iraqi refugees must be, to know that Australia feels that same way as they do about Saddam Hussein, only to make it to Australia and find that Australian officials treat them with all the contempt they might treat Saddam himself if he were to step off from a leaky old boat onto Christmas Island.

That we are quite happy to go into the middle east and add to the masses and masses of refugees in the name of democracy and freedom, and yet we were unwilling to take responsibility for these same refugees when they came to Australia in search of asylum, is hipocrisy of the highest order, and it demonstrates animportant point. That this government does not send troops to Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter, out of even the remotest concern for those most affected by the fundemntalist/despotic regiemes: Iraqi civillians.