Australia said yesterday it expected some troops and advisers would stay in Afghanistan for at least a decade more as lawmakers began a debate on involvement in the war that could test support for the minority government.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told parliament that without foreign soldiers in the country, Afghanistan would again become a haven for militants.
“Australia will not abandon Afghanistan, but we must be very realistic about the future. Transition will take some years, we will be engaged through this decade at least,” Gillard said at the start of a week-long national debate on the war.
“Good government in the country may be the work of an Afghan generation,” Gillard said in a speech aimed at reassuring a nervous public with support for the conflict slipping after a surge in Australian military deaths this year.
Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, based mainly at Tirin Kot in southern Uruzgan Province, and is the largest non-NATO member of the international coalition fighting Taliban insurgents in the country.
However, it has taken a hung parliament at home in the wake of dead-heat August elections and a mounting number of troops deaths, now totaling 21, to trigger the first-ever parliamentary debate on the intensifying nine-year conflict.
The influential Greens, who supported Gillard’s Labor after the tied Aug. 21 vote, want a withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan to start as soon as possible.
However, Gillard and conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott both committed to keeping forces in the country, with some senior conservatives having recently called for even greater numbers of troops and equipment, including tanks and attack helicopters.
Backbench lawmakers on both sides are expected over the next week to question Australia’s war strategy and back calls from a former military forces chief for a clear exit plan. Former soldiers also protested against the war in front of parliament.
Conservative leader Abbott said the opposition supported the Afghanistan deployment, having been in power when Canberra became one of the first governments to sign on to the war in the wake of the attacks on the US on Sept. 11, 2001.
However, Abbott said he would speak out against the government, if needed, to support the military, which is training the Afghan National Army’s fledgling fourth brigade to take over security in Uruzgan in around two years to four years time.
“We have a duty to stand up for Australian soldiers if there’s a possibility that the government might have let them down,” Abbott said, adding officers on the ground in Afghanistan wanted more helicopter support.
Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said mistakes had been made by US and NATO-led forces in the war strategy, including taking too long to realize that military efforts needed reinforcing with measures to win over Afghan civilians.
However, Gillard, who recently visited Afghanistan, said she was “cautiously encouraged” by small advances in Uruzgan, including a revolt against the Taliban by local people in Gizab township earlier this year.
“Australia will do everything in our power to ensure Afghanistan is never again a safe haven for terrorists,” she said.
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