171 / There's hope

The awkward election result of a hung parliamant has brought into play a voice of sanity, that of Andrew Wilkie.

The Tasmanian independent (yeah!) MP in 2003 blew the whistle on intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.

Mr Wilkie told Parliament yesterday (SMH) that any chance of success in Afghanistan was blown in 2002 when the US concentrated its efforts on Iraq.

Terrorism had since morphed into a global threat and ''that we must stay in Afghanistan to protect Australia from terrorism is a great lie peddled by both the government and the opposition''. The excuse that Australia's presence in Afghanistan was a measure of the strength of the US alliance was ''misplaced sentiment'', he said.

Mr Wilkie said stabilising the country was becoming ''increasingly unachievable because foreign troops which anchor such a solution are now seen by many Afghans as the problem'.

That sentiment was repeated in this week's Insight on SBS by Mahbobah Rawi, an Afghan woman who runs a charity: Mahbobah's Promise. She said what Afghanistan doesn't need was more troops, more war, but infrastructure, schools and education.