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I will give troops all they need, Australian PM vows
Sydney Morning Herald - October 4, 2010
Phillip Coorey – Australia's commitment to the war in Afghanistan is not capped and will be boosted if the military chiefs request it, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, says.
But any increased commitment would not include sending tanks, an idea put forward last week by the opposition but condemned on the weekend by senior US and Australian officers in Afghanistan.
In a secret diversion en route to a summit in Brussels, Ms Gillard visited the troops in Oruzgan province and assured them the coming parliamentary debate on the war would not result in a watering down of the mission.
She then flew to Kabul for separate meetings with the allied commander, General David Petraeus, and the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai.
As well as discussing the war with Mr Karzai, Ms Gillard raised the issue of the return of Afghan asylum seekers found not to be refugees. Her government has just lifted a six-month freeze on processing Afghan arrivals.
Amid emerging political differences over the war, Ms Gillard had invited the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, to accompany her on the trip.
He declined and instead attended the annual conference of the British Conservative Party in Birmingham. He will visit Afghanistan at a later date.
The opposition has called for more troops, helicopters, tanks and artillery support for Oruzgan. At the weekend soldiers of all ranks derided the concept of using tanks in a guerilla war.
"This is not a tank fight," said the US commander at Tarin Kowt, Colonel Jim Creighton. "This is a fight for the people. This is a fight about services and good governance. You can't do that from a tank."
But some soldiers speaking privately said that while they were delighted at the medical evacuation provided by the US which has replaced the Dutch, they said they needed more troops and Australian helicopters to help them cover their expanded area of operations.
One soldier, named Chris, approached Ms Gillard with these concerns.
Later, she told the Herald that the 1550 Australia soldiers in Afghanistan was not "a cap" and if the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Houston, recommended an increase in men or materiel, it would be provided.
Air Chief Marshal Houston, who also does not support the use of tanks in Afghanistan, has advised the government the commitment is sufficient. Colonel Creighton said: "We have what we need."
Afghanistan was Ms Gillard's first overseas destination as Prime Minister and it was a deliberate act of solidarity with the soldiers and the war.
"I did want to make sure that my very first trip as Prime Minister was to here, to come and see you and say hello to you," she said.
"I know it has been a really hard period and a really hard year, a really hard few months and we very much value what you are doing here."
While the opposition is pushing to escalate the war effort, the Greens and the Independent Andrew Wilkie will use the coming debate to argue to pull the troops out.
Ms Gillard said there would be no diminution of the commitment. "The parliamentary debate in my view is a great opportunity to tell the Australian people what you are achieving here," she said.
"The mission is critical to making sure that this place does not again become a training ground, a place that sponsors violence and terrorism that is visited on innocent people around the world, but particularly on innocent Australians."
In the nine years since the war started, 21 Australians have been killed, including five since the election was called.
"I may not have been Prime Minister for a very long time but I've certainly attended a large number of funerals," she told the troops. "I've certainly thought about how that will be impacting on you, what it would be making you think and feel as you see that loss of life and you see people wounded."
Yesterday, Ms Gillard flew to Brussels but stopped off in Zurich to lobby the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, over Australia's bid to stage the football World Cup.
In Brussels for the Asia-Europe Meeting, Ms Gillard will have bilateral meetings with fellow world leaders, including Nicolas Sarkozy of France. She will discuss Afghanistan with the Secretary-General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Mr Abbott will meet the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in Birmingham.
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