Ex-Aust premier urges troops out of Afghanistan

Former West Australian Labor premier Peter Dowding has taken out a full page newspaper advertisement urging the federal government to pull Australian troops out of Afghanistan.

The colour advertisement in The West Australian newspaper today coincides with Remembrance Day and depicts soldiers behind razor wire in a silhouetted image, with the heading "Australia is at War. Why?"

The advertisement cost nearly $16,000 ($NZ18,613.30).

"I think it's time we ... remembered what Armistice Day was -- it was a day to commemorate the tragic loss of millions of lives and the absolute horror of war," Mr Dowding told AAP today.

"It's (Afghanistan) a very ghastly, brutal place, increasingly now, for civilians."

The advertisement says the United States and its allies are spending more than $US720 million ($NZ1.25 billion) a day or $US500,000 per hour waging war "amongst the poorest communities on earth".

"Did you know that two months ago 60 Afghan children were killed by `friendly fire'?" the advertisement says.

"Australians, take action today by emailing Mr Rudd's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith ..."

Mr Dowding, still an ALP member, said he bought the advertisement at a charity auction and had been waiting for the right occasion to use it.

Afghanistan was the wrong place to target al-Qaeda, when it was clear terrorism problems were more acute in Pakistan.

"No country has ever invaded Afghanistan successfully, I mean Alexander the Greek couldn't do it and the British couldn't do it and we're not going to do it," Mr Dowding said.

"We're participating in a dreadful war where innocent civilians are killed all the time where the poorest country on earth has hundreds of millions of dollars being spent around it every day and yet nothing's changing the society."

Mr Dowding said he had no qualms about publishing the message, even though it targeted one of his political colleagues in WA, Stephen Smith.

"You can't send an email to the prime minister," Mr Dowding said.

"You can only do it on a web page. But he's (Stephen Smith) the foreign minister and he's the person to whom the message should be addressed ... whoever's in power, if you think they're wrong you have to tell them that."

He said his father, who died a month ago, was a strong anti-war campaigner and the advertisement was dedicated to him.

Mr Dowding became WA premier in 1988 and resigned amid the fallout of the WA Inc scandal in 1990, making way for Carmen Lawrence.

Australia currently has 1,090 troops deployed in Afghanistan.

- AAP