Australian PM warns of 10-year Afghan engagement

SYDNEY: Australia will be involved in Afghanistan for the next decade, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday as she warned of “hard days ahead” for forces battling the Taliban insurgency.
Gillard said Afghanistan should never again become a safe haven for extremists and her government was committed to standing by the nation’s most important ally, the United States, in the long-running conflict.
“This means more fighting, more violence, it risks more casualties. There will be many hard days ahead,” Gillard said in her first address to the national parliament on the war.
The prime minister said that while Australia’s key mission in Afghanistan, to train an Afghan National Army brigade in restive Uruzgan, was expected to take two to four years, Canberra’s involvement would extend beyond this.
While the Afghan government was expected to take over responsibility for security by 2014, the international community, including Australia, would remain engaged in the Central Asian nation beyond that date, she said.
“There will still be a need for Australians in a supporting role. There will still be a role for training and other defence co-operation. The civilian-led aid and development effort will continue,” Gillard said.
“We expect this support, training and development task to continue in some form through this decade at least.”
The war in Afghanistan has bipartisan political support in Australia, which has some 1,550 troops in the country, but the government is facing increasing public pressure as the war stretches on amid mounting casualties.
Gillard said that Australia’s commitment to Afghanistan was not open-ended, and Canberra wanted to bring its troops home as soon as possible, but that success was critical.
“Australia will not abandon Afghanistan. We must be very realistic about the future,” she said. “Transition will take some years — we will be engaged through this decade at least.”
Australia joined the US-led war effort in Afghanistan in the months following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, but withdrew its soldiers in December 2002 as the situation stabilised.
Canberra sent special forces troops in September 2005 to target key insurgents and ramped up its efforts from October 2008 as it took on a growing role in training and mentoring Afghan soldiers in the country’s south. —AFP