Afghanistan War and Australia’s involvement in the conflict can only be deemed a success, Christopher Pyne says

Some don’t see the Afghanistan War and Australia’s involvement a success. They’ve forgot why it happened, says former defence minister Christopher Pyne.

Sadly the narrative developing about the twenty-year Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2021 is about as shallow as a desert island gene pool.

Neither Australia or the United States, nor indeed any of the nations that committed troops to that conflict, did so to liberate the Afghan people and install a democratic, Western-oriented government.

The purpose of the Allied invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was to remove the opportunity for Afghanistan to be used as a base for terrorism directed at the West, degrade the capability of the terrorist network al-Qaeda and bring Osama bin Laden to justice.

Because it’s 20 years ago, some people seem to have forgotten that the World Trade Centre had just been literally destroyed in New York on September 11.

Osama bin Laden was riding high as the pre-eminent terrorist in the world and his al-Qaeda network appeared to be acting at will across the world in killing, maiming and striking fear in the hearts of good people across North Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

At that time, the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in an oppressive, theocratic, authoritarian regime.

Australian Army soldiers conducting a training exercise in Townsville in 2016 before flying out for an overseas posting.

The Taliban allowed al-Qaeda and its leadership to operate from within their country.

Deluded Westerners were travelling to Afghanistan to be trained by terrorists in the hope of returning to their homes and wreaking havoc.

The Allies invaded in October 2001. Within a short period of time, the Allied military forces had routed the Taliban Government and degraded al-Qaeda to a mere shadow of their former selves.

They had also ended the use of the territory of Afghanistan as a staging post for world terrorism and, eventually, the US military caught up with bin Laden and he was eliminated in a house outside Abbottabad in Pakistan.

As a fortuitous by product of the success of the Allied intentions in the war, Afghanistan was transformed into a functioning democracy, millions of hitherto persecuted girls were able to be educated, minorities were no longer persecuted and the capital Kabul and much of the country’s infrastructure, hospitals, schools and economic activity were restored.

Over the past 20 years, the regular Afghanistan military has been equipped and trained by the US and its allies. Including by the Australian, New Zealand and British forces at the officer training facility on the outskirts of Kabul that I was fortunate to visit as Defence Minister.

Almost 39,000 Australian military personnel served in the Afghanistan War. Forty-one Australians paid the ultimate sacrifice and were killed there.

Many hundreds more were injured and hundreds more bear the mental and physical scars of their service. Others have taken their own lives since their return.

Australian troops on patrol in Afghanistan in 2018. Picture: Gary Ramage

You can’t tell me their service was in vain. It wasn’t. The war achieved its objectives.

But it isn’t the role of the Western nations to stay in Afghanistan in perpetuity.

At some point the Afghanistan government itself was required to accept its responsibilities as the legitimate government of the Afghan people and, if necessary, fight for its existence.

Twenty years of training, equipping and rebuilding a nation, a military and its institutions is enough.

News of the Taliban’s military successes is alarming. It’s also, at this time, almost certainly exaggerated.

The Taliban is highly motivated to talk up their victories to damage the morale of their opponents and reduce their will to fight.

They will also want to encourage Afghan tribal leaders and warlords, particularly outside the cities, to join them and not the government forces.

The news will almost certainly get worse before it gets better.

Sadly, that is no reason for the Australian government to rethink its decision to end our engagement and pull our troops out. Its was the right decision.

Allied forces launched the Afghanistan War following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

What the government is grappling with in the wake of the Taliban’s assault on the Afghan people in the past few months, is who Australia should give refuge to that served our embassy, military, advisers and all those associated with our presence there as interpreters, drivers and providers of services.

While the Government will apply the process that pertains in these matters, personally, I hope they will err on the side of being generous.

What would bring us back into a conflict in Afghanistan? The same circumstances that existed in the early 2000s.

If the Taliban does succeed in their ambitions, if they replace the current Government and allow the use of Afghanistan as the headquarters of world terrorism again, then Western nations around the world will reconsider their decision to exit.

It isn’t our role to impose liberty, freedom and democracy on the rest of the world, much as we are glad it is the hallmark of the society in which we are fortunate to live.

However, when our freedom is threatened then we can and will act to defend it.

That’s what we did in the Afghanistan War and no matter how painful it is to see the Taliban’s strength grow, that’s why we can say that we accomplished our mission.