Why should we bother testing our endurance if heartbreak and hopelessness are the only results?
The Taliban is showing dogged resistance as terror attacks continue to arise in politically unstable locations worldwide, Hamid Karzai continues his corrupt rule while relishing the turmoil his regime creates, and $20million dollars of Coalition funds is being wasted each month on military operations that often result in innumerable civilian deaths.
Most frighteningly though, after eight years, there exists no political strategy to achieve our unrealistic aims.
Australia's continued presence in this unwinnable war exemplifies the totality of our stupidity.
Jonathan Hill, Old Erowal Bay, NSW
Cause and effect
The terror attacks in Jakarta's two safest luxury hotels on the Muslim Sabbath, allegedly by the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (''Deadly bombs blast Jakarta'', July 18, p1), will no doubt send a clear message to Western nations such as Australia that they are firmly being held in the line of fire by radicalised Islamic militants.
But while the attacks were typically denounced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as cowardly and barbaric, they are nevertheless part of a much larger picture that the Government cannot rule out. According to security analyst Dr Carl Ungerer and his Indonesian counterpart, Noor Huda Ismail, the execution of the three Bali bombing perpetrators in November of last year may have prompted the further radicalisation of some hardline Jemaah Islamiah offshoots.
They even go as far as to suggest that these groups could perceive the executions as a sacred date to be leveraged to attract new support and recruits. Given the highly pivotal nature of their observations, it would not be too difficult to conclude that the former Howard government's unprincipled stand on the death penalty, which received bipartisan support, has now come back to haunt the Rudd Government with a vengeance.
Mr Rudd would certainly be very loathe to admit that there was any possible link between the two.
But if the Government is to make any headway in its response to these latest blasts, it must do all in its moral power to give our enemies far less cause to take the lives of innocent civilians.
Reverend Dr Vincent Zankin, Rivett
Prices off the rails
John Coochey (Letters, July 15) and Roger Quarterman (Letters, July 18) are correct in their assessments of the economic viability of a very fast train, and the viability of maglev technology for a long-distance VFT, versus proven wheels on rail technology.
Nowhere has maglev technology proven viable enough yet, for long-distance rail transport.
Latest estimates by proponents of a maglev in Great Britain are more than 33million ($A67million) a km.
''Wheels on rails'' technology for a VFT from Sydney to Melbourne was estimated at $12 billion when it was last proposed in the early 1990s.
It wasn't economically viable then, and it isn't economically viable yet, unless the Melbourne-Sydney corridor had a population approaching that of European cities despite the wishful thinking of people who have travelled on fast European trains.
A VFT would certainly be a bonanza for the steel and concrete industry, but not the Australian taxpayer.
Money would be more efficiently spent on upgrading the rail freight tracks where ''efficient'' rail freight could then compete with trucks.
Or, as is being done now providing Federal funding to improve the efficiency of rail freight corridors including Melbourne-Brisbane a distance where rail can compete with trucks, and a high growth area.
Rita Jelfs, Giralang
Fast train to poverty
For $15, I can get from Civic to Sydney by bus in three-and-a-half hours. For $65, I can fly from Canberra to Melbourne in an hour. For $79, I can fly from Melbourne to Sydney in an hour.
Could very fast train devotees explain how much taxpayer cash they will need to compete with buses and planes?
What Canberra needs are fast (not very fast) commuter trains.
While we dither and dream, commuters can get from outer to inner Perth at 135km/h by fast electric train.
Very fast trains are like helicopter joy rides. Great fun but preferably minus a thrill subsidy.
Graham Macafee, Latham
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