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Diggers to remain in Iraq
AUSTRALIAN troops in Iraq will stay on duty despite Prime Minister John Howard declaring he would prefer to have them home. The PM said yesterday that the nearly 450 soldiers sent to protect Japanese engineers would remain when the Japanese leave in May and no deadline had been set for their departure.Mr Howard said he had obligations to the coalition partners of the war in Iraq. The Australian military, based in the Al Muthanna region, are likely to be redeployed within the troubled area. They were controversially sent to Iraq last year after Mr Howard said during the election that Australia would not increase its presence. Australia still has 1200 troops on the ground in Iraq. Mr Howard said he hoped the recent Iraqi elections would help in the peace process. "It should not be assumed that we would bring all of our forces home," Mr Howard said. "We're having some discussion with our coalition partners in the interests of further training the Iraqis in the interests of building on what has been achieved to date." Mr Howard said it would be a short-sighted policy to design a timeline for the troops to be returned to Australia. "I don't want to leave Australian troops in Iraq . . . a day longer than is necessary," he said. "But I am not going to be part of a policy which leaves the job unfinished." The renewed commitment comes as the Government was accused of providing defective and inappropriate equipment to defence forces overseas. Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland said the Government had become too focused on buying big ticket military items. I imagine the high morale of both the Australian and Japanese soldiers is pretty hard to conceal from their respective leaders. It is far more persuasive than the snivelling from the opposition. It emboldens national pride. Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-02-12 |
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