Once again we go through what has become a wretched ritual: early reports of casualties in Afghanistan, then the horrible confirmation that Australians soldiers have died this time; our political leaders cancel engagements and head to media conferences to utter the same sentiments that we have heard too many times.

Our leaders agonise over putting Australians in harm’s way; no one seriously suggests they commit troops and maintain their presence lightly. But the divide over the Afghanistan conflict between Labor and the Coalition on the one hand, and the majority of Australian voters who wants us to leave, grows ever wider, fuelled by the almost complete absence of evidence of progress from that country, and by the disturbingly common attacks of Afghan soldiers on allied forces. (The incident that has claimed three Australian lives today may have been an Afghan soldier, or an enemy combatant wearing the uniform of one.)

Both major parties continue to insist that our role in Afghanistan is vital in ensuring that the country does not again become a haven for terrorism. That justification will continue to be invoked when politicians express their sympathy for the families of those slain.

But it is no longer a sufficient justification for the ongoing deaths of young Australian men sent abroad by their leaders. This is an increasingly meaningless conflict, and Australians do not support it.