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NATO helped bring Taliban official to Kabul: Petraeus
Fri Oct 15, 3:10 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) – NATO-led forces facilitated the passage of a senior Taliban commander to Kabul to hold talks with the Afghan government, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan said on Friday.
US cannot see Mullah Omar playing role in Afghanistan
Thu Oct 14, 4:24 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Thursday it cannot see Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar meeting criteria for peace talks with the Afghan government and playing a constructive role in Afghanistan's future.
EU Special Envoy Welcomes Afghan-Led Reconciliation Process
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 14, 2010
Vygaudas Usackas has been EU Special Representative in Afghanistan for only a few months, but has already made many friends in Kabul. Despite the falling public support for the war in Afghanistan, the former Lithuanian foreign minister remains optimistic about the future of Afghanistan.
Afghan civilians killed, injured in IED strike
KABUL, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Several Afghan civilians were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in the Qalat district of southern Zabul province Friday.
US pressing Pakistan 'very hard' to go after Taliban
Hindustan Times Indo-Asian News Service October 15, 2010
Washington - The United States says it is pressing Pakistan "very hard" to go after Taliban segments connected with Al Qaeda crossing into Afghanistan as they pose a threat to nations around the world. "And we're going to keep pressing because we think there's no way to divide this threat,"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Fresh claims US is running secret prison in Afghanistan
October 15, 2010 BBC News
Prisoners are being abused at a "secret jail" in the main American military base in Afghanistan, according to a report from a US policy think tank.
Afghanistan's aid workers advised to seek permission from Taliban
In a gloomy assessment, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office says the Taliban are 'anticipating authority'
The Guardian Jon Boone in Kabul Friday 15 October 2010
Aid workers should seek permission from the Taliban to operate in areas they control, a leading NGO says today.
New report paints gloomy picture on Afghan safety
CNN By Tim Lister October 15, 2010
The insurgency in Afghanistan is gaining strength and new recruits in areas where the Taliban has not previously been prominent, according to a new report from the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) in Kabul.
Militants torch container, kill two in NW Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Unknown militants attacked a private container mistaking it for a NATO vehicle and killed its two drivers on Friday morning in the northwestern tribal region of Pakistan, local sources said.
Calls for greater transparency in Afghan aid expenditure
ABC Online - Politics By Alexandra Kirk 15/10/2010
Aid agencies want the Federal Government to apply much more scrutiny to Australia's aid to Afghanistan.
The parliamentary debate on the war in Afghanistan is a legacy of the Greens' deal to support a Labor minority government.
Unpopular Afghan war missing in US election
AFP By Shaun Tandon Shaun Tandon Thu Oct 14, 2010
WASHINGTON - The war in Afghanistan is increasingly unpopular with the US public, but upcoming elections may hand new power to lawmakers who are pressing for a robust, long-term military commitment.
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NATO helped bring Taliban official to Kabul: Petraeus
Fri Oct 15, 3:10 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) – NATO-led forces facilitated the passage of a senior Taliban commander to Kabul to hold talks with the Afghan government, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan said on Friday.
General David Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the move was part of U.S. and NATO support for President Hamid Karzai's reconciliation discussions with the Taliban.
"In certain respect we do facilitate that, given that, needless to say it would not be the easiest of tasks for a senior Taliban commander to enter Afghanistan and make his way to Kabul if ISAF were not....aware of it and therefore allows it to take place," he told an audience in London.
"That's about as far as I can go on that at this point."
Petraeus said several "very senior" Taliban leaders had reached out to the Afghan government and other countries engaged in Afghanistan. However, he said the discussions were preliminary in nature.
"They certainly would not rise to the level of being called negotiations," he said.
U.S. and NATO leaders said on Thursday they were ready to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai pursue reconciliation efforts with the Taliban. Pakistan said on Friday it was willing to assist such talks.
(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Peter Graff)
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US cannot see Mullah Omar playing role in Afghanistan
Thu Oct 14, 4:24 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Thursday it cannot see Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar meeting criteria for peace talks with the Afghan government and playing a constructive role in Afghanistan's future.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Taliban foot-soldiers and leaders could participate in Afghanistan's future if they renounce violence, cut ties with Al-Qaeda and support the Afghan constitution.
But he doubted the opportunity would be seized by Mullah Omar, the Taliban's one-eyed leader who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan and who, the Washington Post said last week, backs secret high-level peace talks with Kabul.
"From our view, Mullah Omar has been attached at the hip to bin Laden for some time. So, based on everything that we know about him today, in fact he will not meet the criteria that we have laid out," Crowley told reporters.
"He had many opportunities during the '90s and even after 9/11 to disassociate himself from Osama bin Laden. He chose not to," Crowley said.
"So you know, there's nothing that we see that indicates that Mullah Omar will, in fact, change his stripes. As a result, we don't see that he qualifies to play a constructive role in Afghanistan's future."
Last week The Washington Post cited unnamed Afghan and Arab sources as saying the high-level peace talks were believed to involve delegates authorized by Mullah Omar and his Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan.
Mullah Omar and other top Taliban figures have insisted for years that US-led foreign forces must first leave Afghanistan before peace talks can begin.
But a source close to the talks told the Post that the leadership knows "that they are going to be sidelined," and was negotiating with the government of President Hamid Karzai to ensure their positions are protected.
A senior State Department official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, suggested Quetta Shura members would be taking part in the talks, just not those close to Mullah Omar.
"I don't think we're ruling out participation by members of the Quetta Shura. I happen to believe personally that certain members of the Quetta Shura will not qualify," the official said.
"The Quetta Shura includes Mullah Omar but we'll see who's willing to actually disassociate himself from Al-Qaeda and who won't."
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EU Special Envoy Welcomes Afghan-Led Reconciliation Process
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 14, 2010
Vygaudas Usackas has been EU Special Representative in Afghanistan for only a few months, but has already made many friends in Kabul. Despite the falling public support for the war in Afghanistan, the former Lithuanian foreign minister remains optimistic about the future of Afghanistan. In an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique, Usackas says his main challenge is to convince Afghanistan's neighbors to emulate the European model in ending the numerous conflicts in the region.
RFE/RL: I want to begin by asking you about the peace process. Following the appointment of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani as the head of the High Peace Council, how do you view the way forward?
Vygaudas Usackas: I think it is very welcome news that the High Peace Council has been established and that such a highly respected person as Professor Rabbani was appointed chairman of the High Peace Council. I know Professor Rabbani rather well, and will be seeing him...and learning from him how he sees the process [moving] forward. We all know that the international community and the European Union [are] very much behind reconciliation.
We believe that the resolution to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan rests in the peace efforts and in the peace settlement which will entail both the fractions within the country but also important contributions of the neighboring countries. I just came back from Islamabad -- we had meetings with representatives of the government and also with the NGO and think-tank communities -- and I was very encouraged to hear the voice of positive attitude in support of the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
RFE/RL: In speaking to people on both sides while in Kabul, I have become aware of a key point in that the Taliban believe that tangible steps toward peace can only come when the international community lifts some of the blacklists, sanctions against some Taliban leaders, close detention facilities that are obviously very notorious, like the Guantanamo Bay prison, the Bagram prison, and also allow insurgents some political space. Do you see that happening any time soon?
Usackas: What I see happening is indeed opposition by the Afghan government to the talks. First of all, it is important to acknowledge that they will be Afghan-led negotiations; and I think that what we have heard from President [Hamid] Karzai numerous times is his support and eagerness to advance reconciliation. I don't want to go into details -- it will be a part of negotiations when they start.
We have heard the reports about the talks and connections being established between the government and certain types of Taliban -- the Haqqani Network and Quetta Shura. Again, I don't want to preempt those discussions. I think currently we only see pre-positioning for the future talks, and the first contacts, or talks, for the talks. However, again, I welcome the establishment of the High Peace Council. We support the efforts toward reconciliation -- the European Union itself is an example of reconciliation among the nations after the Second World War. So, I mean, the Afghan-led process of reconciliation has [the EU's] whole-hearted support in that respect.
Intra-Afghan Matters
RFE/RL: You said you were in Islamabad. What was the mood there after the government closed the main northern NATO supply route to Afghanistan? Is Islamabad ready to help with an internal political settlement in Afghanistan, or do they seek to realize what was traditionally their objective of seeing a pro-Islamabad government in Kabul?
Usackas: First of all, what I gathered is a clear sign that Pakistan sees internal settlement as an Afghan-led settlement in Afghanistan. And that's, I think, very important that we all -- all neighbors of Afghanistan and the international community -- would rally behind the efforts of an intra-Afghan peace settlement. On the other hand, what I found is also an understanding that both countries share the same security threats and security risks, which derive from militant extremism and the sources of international terrorism.
RFE/RL: How do you see the new parliament shaping up -- will the results of the September 18 elections be as contested as in the presidential election of 2009. I mean, it has already taken a long time just to announce the results of the elections; just to compile them.
Usackas: What is now important and what is happening right now is that both the IEC and the Election Complaints Commission are going through the tabulation of results and are going through the review of complaints. And what matters is that the tabulation and complaints would be reviewed in as transparent a fashion as possible so as to demonstrate to the Afghan people that the process is credible, inclusive, and transparent. It will not be, as I said, ideal elections, but what is important to what I discussed [on October 10] with President Karzai, is indeed to embark upon lessons learned as soon as the results are announced, and we stand ready to support the Afghan government, and Afghan institutions, and the Afghan people, in reviewing the electoral-reform process.
For example, no one knows how many people there are in Afghanistan; how many are eligible to vote. How are we going to address that issue? Are we going to embark on a voters' registry, or are we going to help with I.D. cards for Afghan citizens for example? How can we support the Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission and the Independent Election Commission? So those issues have to be addressed. And I hope that the Afghan government -- and I felt from my conversation [October 10] with President Karzai -- that he is committed to move forward with the electoral process after the election.
Is Democracy Delivering?
RFE/RL: You come from a country which has undergone in a way, tremendous transformation in the past 20 years. From being a Soviet state you are a member of the EU, a member of NATO, a country that has joined the largest regional corporation organization we see today. In your personal view, what kind of future direction do you see in this country? Is there democracy really working, is it delivering?
Usackas: What is rewarding, really, to see is the building [of a] consensus in the Afghan establishment from President Karzai to junior officials that a critical mass of issues has to be addressed in reforming civil service in making the civil service accountable and providing the best service for the people. And I think we can share that experience, which is of paramount importance. And I'm glad also to register that thanks to the Kabul Conference and especially thanks to the European Union's engagement, we helped to make that issue more prominent within the agenda of Afghanistan. That without good governance, without good public administration, without eliminating corruption from the government services they'll be no way to ensure and retain economic and political development of the country.
I think we're coming to that point where there is a clear recognition and actually request from President Karzai to me and the members of the European Union to come help. And I think Central European countries, the Baltic countries, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and others have a lot of offer to Afghanistan. I mean, we went through 20 years of reform. We went from the one-party system to multi-party democratic system. We went from the central planning economy to the free-market economy.
RFE/RL: Ambassador, what is EU doing to support economic development in Afghanistan? And how do you see the Afghan economy? Is it on the right trajectory?
Usackas: Well, first of all, often it is underestimated what a big contribution the European Union is making in Afghanistan. Since 2002, the European Union all together has contributed 8 billion euros of development aid. European Union's common budget, a part of the EU's member states' budget, annually is going to increase from 150 [million euros] this year to 200 million euros for the next three consecutive years. Annually, EU common budget, and EU states together contribute to Afghan economy and Afghan development projects worth 1 billion euros.
Our major focus areas are the following: Agriculture and rural development, to enable Afghan people to move from the poppy industry into the agriculture development, which is very rich especially with fruits, with different kinds of nuts and vegetables, and also we are supporting irrigation systems, putting up irrigation systems in different provinces, building dams, etc. Secondly, we are supporting Afghan people on the rule of law and governance. We are still supporting, salary-wise, Afghan police forces. We also have the European Union police mission in place, which during the last year alone has contributed to train 11,000 civil police, and that's a unique niche where European Union police mission is concentrated. That's something neither the NATO training mission nor the American bilateral mission can really address. The third important sector is the health sector. We've been supporting regeneration and renovation of building up the different medical care centers across the country, and thanks to that, the access to medical care has increased from 6 percent in 2002 to 64 percent in 2010.
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Afghan civilians killed, injured in IED strike
KABUL, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Several Afghan civilians were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in the Qalat district of southern Zabul province Friday.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a press release confirmed the incident but failed to give the exact number of the casualties.
The ISAF press release said Afghan National Police members responded to the scene of the blast and transported the wounded to a local hospital.
Zabul province has been seeing rising insurgent violence recently.
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US pressing Pakistan 'very hard' to go after Taliban
Hindustan Times Indo-Asian News Service October 15, 2010
Washington - The United States says it is pressing Pakistan "very hard" to go after Taliban segments connected with Al Qaeda crossing into Afghanistan as they pose a threat to nations around the world. "And we're going to keep pressing because we think there's no way to divide this threat,"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview With ABC in Brussels, where she is for a NATO session to discuss progress in Afghanistan.
"And I've said this publicly in Pakistan, I've said it privately many times - this is a threat to the institutions and authority of the Pakistan Government, not just to Afghanistan, not just to the interests of the United States and other countries around the world."
The strategic review of the Afghan war done after President Barack Obama took office found that "we had to look at Afghanistan and Pakistan together - it wasn't either/or; it was both/and," Clinton said.
So the US "been working very closely with the Pakistani Government, both the civilian democratically elected government and the military leadership, to chart a new way forward, a new partnership that is strategic, focused on what I believe are the threats that we both face."
When she became Secretary of State, "it was clear that there was a transition in thinking going on with - inside Pakistan that they had not come to grips with the internal threat posed by the Pakistani Taliban," she said.
"That has changed. There's been a tremendous effort by the Pakistani Government and military to go after those elements of the Taliban that threatened their institutions, where they blow up mosques, they blow up military headquarters and police stations, universities, markets, and so much else that is just violent destruction."
"But we're pressing very hard that they do more with their military forces, their intelligence forces to go after those segments of this Taliban network that is connected with Al Qaeda that is crossing the border into Afghanistan, going after our military as well as Afghan targets," she said.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has also asked Pakistan to take promised action against terrorist safe havens in North Waziristan at the earliest as it was critical in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan.
"Well, I think it's important. It's clear that North Waziristan is an important safe haven not just for Al Qaeda but for the Haqqani network and for others," Gates told travelling media on way to Brussels.
"And it's also just a fact of life that significant military resources have been drawn away to help deal with this terrible flooding situation they have. So the question is, at what point do they return to the offensive in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas," Gates asked.
"Obviously the sooner the better, but I also completely understand the need to take care of their own people first because of the flooding."
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Fresh claims US is running secret prison in Afghanistan
October 15, 2010 BBC News
Prisoners are being abused at a "secret jail" in the main American military base in Afghanistan, according to a report from a US policy think tank.
Ex-detainees said they were deprived of sleep and held in cold isolation cells in the site at Bagram, says New York-based Open Society Foundations.
A BBC investigation in April uncovered similar allegations of prisoner abuse at a hidden facility in Bagram airbase.
The US military repeated its denial that it was operating a secret jail.
'Very troubling pattern'
Open Society Foundations, which is funded by liberal billionaire George Soros, says 18 detainees claim they were held at a secret site, dubbed the "black jail", during 2009 and 2010.
The inmates said they were exposed to excessive cold and light, not given enough food or blankets, deprived of sleep, stripped naked for medical examinations and not allowed to practise their religion.
"Given the consistency of the accounts, the Open Society Foundations believes these are genuine areas of concern, and not outliers, that run counter to US rules on detainee treatment," the report says.
"We're not talking about being threatened to death in interrogation with drills to their head, we're talking about run-of-the-mill detention conditions that when seen as a whole create a very troubling pattern," report author Jonathan Horowitz said.
The US military said its detention centres complied with US and international laws.
"The Department of Defence does not operate any secret prisons," Capt Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for the US military task force overseeing detentions in Afghanistan, told Associated Press news agency.
In April, the BBC spoke to nine former detainees who said they had been held at a secret jail.
The prisoners said that they had been prevented from sleeping and that a light had been kept on in their small, cold concrete cells so they could not tell if it was night or day.
In June last year, the BBC spoke to a number of other former detainees who had been held at Bagram airbase, and they claimed they had been beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs.
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Afghanistan's aid workers advised to seek permission from Taliban
In a gloomy assessment, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office says the Taliban are 'anticipating authority'
The Guardian Jon Boone in Kabul Friday 15 October 2010
Aid workers should seek permission from the Taliban to operate in areas they control, a leading NGO says today.
In a gloomy assessment of the current security situation, the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (Anso) says the Taliban are "anticipating authority", even to the extent of developing a foreign policy.
"The sum of their activity presents the image of a movement anticipating authority and one which has already obtained a complex momentum that Nato will be incapable of reversing," it warns.
Anso has an unrivalled system for collecting security information from around the country. Its data shows that in the south the Nato surge has failed to degrade the Taliban's ability to fight. Attacks have increased by 59% between July and September compared with the same period last year. It also contradicts Nato claims that the insurgency is close to breaking point. Despite Nato efforts in Kandahar, Anso says it believes there are as many as 4,000 insurgent fighters inside the southern city
It also reports a dramatic deterioration in the north of the country. Four out of 12 provinces have experienced double the average growth rate in violence and districts are in danger of slipping out of control. Lack of Nato troops and clumsy efforts to regain the initiative by using local militias have made the situation worse, the report says.
Anso's advice to seek permission to operate from local insurgents follows a 60% increase in kidnapping of NGO workers and cases where insurgents have told those released to register their NGO's activities to avoid further problems.
The Taliban's growing strength has led many diplomats and senior Afghan officials to conclude that the movement will not agree to peace talks. The Taliban's official line is that they will not talk until foreign troops quit the country.
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New report paints gloomy picture on Afghan safety
CNN By Tim Lister October 15, 2010
The insurgency in Afghanistan is gaining strength and new recruits in areas where the Taliban has not previously been prominent, according to a new report from the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) in Kabul.
In the third quarter of this year, it says, armed attacks by insurgents were 59 percent higher than in the same period of 2009.
The gloomy assessment of the security situation says some districts in northern provinces are in danger of slipping beyond control, and it describes efforts to form local militias in opposition to the Taliban as "clumsy."
It recommends that nongovernmental organizations engage with insurgent groups rather than avoid them.
There is evidence that insurgents are ready to accommodate nongovernmental organizations, according to the report.
The ANSO director, Nic Lee, writes that counterinsurgency efforts in Kandahar and Marjah in the south "have failed to degrade [insurgents'] ability to fight, reduce the number of civilian combat fatalities or deliver boxed government."
NATO said earlier this year that as part of its plan to secure Marjah, it planned to inject government services rapidly -- a plan dubbed by then commander U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal as "government in a box."
The new report says that insurgents are now operating advanced administrations in the south and east, and field reports suggest that insurgents are attracting non-Pashtun support in the north from elements within the Turkmen, Uzbek and Tajik communities.
The Taliban is predominantly made up of Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.
Within this environment, the report says, nongovernmental organizations are taking ever more precautions, and deliberate attacks on aid workers by insurgent groups have fallen this year.
Abductions of local nongovernmental organizations employees -- especially in the north -- have risen sharply, but all have been released. It says 25 workers have been killed in the first nine months of this year, compared with 17 in the same period last year.
However, this year's death toll includes the killing of 10 aid workers -- including eight foreigners -- in one attack in the far north-east of Afghanistan in August. The Taliban at first claimed responsibility for that attack but later denied being involved.
The most striking statistic produced by ANSO concerns the number of attacks by "armed opposition groups" this year.
After falling in the months following the presidential election in August 2009, it began climbing from 523 in February this year to a record high of 1,483 in September. ANSO says September's high was largely due to the parliamentary elections, but sees a consistent pattern over the past five years, with attacks rising 45 to 55 percent year on year.
It concludes that the growth in insurgent activity may be in part a response to the increase in NATO operations, especially in the south. But the report notes that many of the provinces showing the sharpest increases are in the east and north.
ANSO advises nongovernmental organizations on safety conditions in Afghanistan.
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Militants torch container, kill two in NW Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Unknown militants attacked a private container mistaking it for a NATO vehicle and killed its two drivers on Friday morning in the northwestern tribal region of Pakistan, local sources said.
Sources said some unknown gunmen opened indiscriminate firing at a container and killed its driver and co-driver on spot in the Khyber agency, a tribal region in the northwest along the border with Afghanistan.
After the attack, the militants dragged out the bodies of the two staffers and then torched the vehicle before running away.
The unlucky container loaded with the luggage for domestic usage was traveling to Afghanistan from Peshawar city, capital of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
When the container reached the Jamrood Shaks road, some militants hiding in nearby mountains attacked the vehicle mistakenly taking it as a NATO container, said local sources.
After the reopening of the Torkham border, the administration of the region has blocked the supply from Peshawar to Torkham after dozens of drivers had started protest and block the Pakistan- Afghan road and demanded the security on the rout.
Local sources said militants in the area had warned the local people not to involve in the NATO supply business otherwise they would be killed and their houses would be burnt.
The warning was delivered after the Pakistani government reinstated the NATO supplies following a 10-day cutoff. During the period of ban, at least 168 NATO containers were burnt and 20 persons were killed by Taliban militants.
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Calls for greater transparency in Afghan aid expenditure
ABC Online - Politics By Alexandra Kirk 15/10/2010
Aid agencies want the Federal Government to apply much more scrutiny to Australia's aid to Afghanistan.
The parliamentary debate on the war in Afghanistan is a legacy of the Greens' deal to support a Labor minority government.
In the lead up to next week's debate, the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) has written to all MP's and senators calling for greater transparency and accountability of Australia's civilian and military assistance.
Afghanistan's combined aid budget is worth about $1.2 billion a year and the peak body for non-government aid groups says it wants to ensure that the money is being spent where it is most needed.
ACFID is also calling on the Government to commit to a 10-year humanitarian and development program, as well as a Senate inquiry into Australia's future role in the country.
The ACFID's Marc Purcell says it is hard to know if Australia's aid is being effective without proper evaluations.
He wants closer scrutiny of military aid to boost accountability.
"Our military aid is concentrated or is going where Australia is a participant in the provincial reconstruction team, however, while we are making some positive difference in population centres there, there are concerns about the lack of transparency," he said.
"There is not really any evaluations of military-led aid there and really if you have got good stories to tell, why hide them under, your light under a bushel.
"You should be actually sharing that, but standard operating procedure for civilian aid is actually to evaluate regularly, to do risk assessments.
"It is hard to assess whether any of that has occurred with the Australian Defence Force."
This financial year, Afghanistan will be the fourth biggest recipient of Australian aid.
The United Nations ranks Afghanistan second last in its human development index of 182 countries.
The peak aid body commissioned a study of Australia's aid, highlighting Afghanistan's rampant corruption and lack of support for the central government.
As a result, Mr Purcell is calling on the Commonwealth to disaggregate its official development assistance and report to Parliament regularly, in a bid to ensure aid is getting to those who need it most.
"The Canadians, for example, have quarterly reports to their parliamentarians on [all] government programs and expenditure and we think that is actually very important, given the lack of transparency about current Australian aid expenditure in Afghanistan," he said.
Greens leader Bob Brown hopes the Government will follow Canada's lead.
"If you are going to have a mature and open debate about the future of Afghanistan and our troops in Afghanistan, information is central to that and the Canadian government and parliament's determination to properly inform itself on a quarterly basis is something we could well emulate here in Australia," he said.
Though parliamentarians are not expected to vote on the war next week, Senator Brown says the debate is all about individual responsibility.
"It is a breakthrough for this Government that this issue is now on the agenda of the Parliament. It doesn't mean we have to determine or overrule what governments are doing," he said.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith also thinks the debate is worthwhile.
"I think it will be both informative and educative. There is, I think, both in the Parliament and outside the Parliament a misunderstanding of the mission that we have in Oruzgan province which is to train and mentor the Afghan National Army," he said.
"Some people I think also misunderstand that somehow we are there by ourselves. We are not. We are there both in Oruzgan province and generally with 47 other nations."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will speak after Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Everyone else gets in line from Wednesday, and MP's have been given 15 minutes to speak.
The Government does not yet know how many will choose to have a say and therefore how long the debate will last.
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Unpopular Afghan war missing in US election
AFP By Shaun Tandon Shaun Tandon Thu Oct 14, 2010
WASHINGTON - The war in Afghanistan is increasingly unpopular with the US public, but upcoming elections may hand new power to lawmakers who are pressing for a robust, long-term military commitment.
Despite intense debate in Washington over Afghanistan, the nine-year-old war has barely figured in the campaign for the November 2 congressional elections as voters and candidates alike zero in on the wobbly US economy.
Many pollsters predict gains by the Republican Party, which has attacked Democratic President Barack Obama on a range of issues but has largely agreed with his deployment of more troops to Afghanistan.
"For the war to be an issue that matters, people have got to disagree about it," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio and staunch critic of the war, faulted his own party for not pressing to change course.
"The cost of the war is absolutely extraordinary," Kucinich said, pointing to casualties among civilians and soldiers along with the economic investment.
"The Democratic Party needed to define it as a foreign policy debacle and take steps to get out. Instead, the party approved an Obama administration plan to take steps to get in deeper," Kucinich told AFP.
Republicans have taken issue with Obama on one aspect of his Afghanistan strategy -- his timeline, set in a speech last year, of starting to withdraw troops in July 2011.
Representative John Boehner -- who would likely be speaker if Republicans win the House -- recently called on Obama to focus on "success" rather than "arbitrary deadlines" in Afghanistan.
"After years of hard fighting -- which has come at a high price -- we cannot afford to underestimate the impact our domestic debates and political hedging have on decisions made by friend and foe alike," he said.
The Obama administration, which has tripled US troop numbers in Afghanistan to 100,000, has said the timeline is subject to realities on the ground but is needed to coax President Hamid Karzai to do more and not over-rely on US help.
But while Obama and the Republicans disagree over the timeline, a growing number of Americans are against the war entirely.
A CNN poll out Thursday found that 58 percent of adult Americans opposed the war.
In a Gallup poll released in August, a record 43 percent of Americans said the United States made the wrong decision in sending troops to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda.
Nonetheless, the Senate's most prominent critic of the war, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, is locked in one of the toughest races for a Democratic incumbent.
Feingold in May led an unsuccessful bid to require Obama to spell out a non-binding timeline for withdrawal, arguing that the more than 300 billion dollars already spent on the war saddled the United States with unsustainable debt while Al-Qaeda has been setting up new havens outside of Afghanistan.
Anti-war campaigner Derrick Crowe, political director of the Brave New Foundation, said lawmakers should take note of the public, even if the upcoming election is dominated not by the war but by an anti-incumbent fervor.
"If they act after this election in a way that furthers the deaths of troops for a war that is not making it safer, they're going to have a real tough time when it comes to the presidential election in 2012 convincing voters they can be trusted with foreign policy issues," he said.
With Congress generally in the back seat on foreign policy, a Republican victory would have little immediate effect on the war, said James Lindsay, senior vice president at the Council on Foreign Relations.
But next year could be decisive.
Republicans -- who lost control of Congress in 2006 in part due to the Iraq war -- would need to weigh the political effects of a hawkish line on Afghanistan, while Obama -- who rose to prominence as an Iraq war opponent -- would face risks with his base if he reconsiders withdrawal, Lindsay said.
"Would it be an important enough issue to trigger a primary challenge to President Obama? In and of itself, probably not," Lindsay said.
"But is it an issue that could lead to a lack of enthusiasm and support in 2012 among Democrats? Certainly."
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