Our first parliamentary debate about Australia's involvement in Afghanistan, nine years after that involvement began, focuses on Australia's military role activity in Uruzgan province in the south.
At the same time, Afghan election authorities have cancelled 1.3 million votes in the parliamentary election, nearly a quarter of the 5.6 million ballots cast. The final results are due to be declared on 30 October, although it will likely be later. It's grist to the mill of those who believe widespread electoral fraud and the corruption of the Karzai government nullifies any international assistance to Afghanistan.
We tend to view Afghanistan through the lens of our own experience. Our national parliamentary elections are held on a Saturday morning at the local school complete with sausage sizzle and cake stalls. They deliver our representatives to a well-established parliamentary institution in Canberra.
But in Central Asia, from Genghis Khan onwards, the strong man has been privileged over strong institutions. Institutions are for settled societies. Afghanistan remains a highly unsettled political entity.
The interactive maps from the Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan show just how insecure the election campaign and election day were for huge swathes of Afghanis. Democracy International's interactive map shows the number of polling booths that didn't open, both in the south and east where the Taliban is strong, and in the north and centre where other anti-government groups operate.
The situation is far more complex than the Australian parliamentary debate seems to credit.
So far the debate has not raised the Karzai government's plan to bring the Taliban inside the political tent, or the fact that countries in Central Asia are already discussing the strategic shape of things following a major US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
There seems to be bipartisan acceptance that Al-Qaeda has been routed in Afghanistan. But US security analyst, Peter Bergen, believes a hive of jihadists is still operating across the border in Pakistan. This border is not officially recognised by Afghanistan, and Pashtuns in Afghanistan's east cross it regularly.
In August ten members of a medical team from Christian aid organisation International Assistance Mission were murdered in remote north-east Afghanistan. The surviving Afghan driver confirmed that Urdu was spoken by some of the killers, indicating they were from across the border.
The murders are being investigated by the FBI. However, many in Afghanistan believe Hezb-e Islami, one of a handful of anti-Afghan government groups led by notorious former mujaheed, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, were responsible. Hekmatyar's group