Australia announces Afghanistan troop increase
Australia plans to almost double its troop numbers in Afghanistan by next year amid warnings that the Taleban insurgency shows no sign of weakening.Prime Minister John Howard said without an extra effort, the fight against the militants would not be won. He warned the country to prepare for casualties.
Six Canadian soldiers died at the weekend in the worst single incident for the Nato-led force since 2005.
Australia currently has some 550 soldiers in Afghanistan.
Mr Howard said the extra troops would include 300 special forces.
"We're not losing the war but we will not win it without renewed and increased effort," he said.
He also criticised those European countries which, while contributing troops, have placed a series of restrictions on the kind of activities their deployments can undertake.
Some of these caveats were lifted at a Nato conference late last year, but Germany, France and Italy will still only send their troops to trouble spots outside their patrol areas in an emergency.
posted by WE Speak at 2:39 a.m.
2 Comments:
I have no idea, but does anyone have a sense to what extent special forces are being used/are needed and to what extent regular forces are being used/are needed?
What I'm getting at is this: is Afghanistan now more a infantry/boots on the ground kind of thing and less of a "we have info about the location of specific target X and now we're going to make a quick raid and arrest/kill him and then go back to our base" kind of thing?
And what I'm really getting at is this: are more special forces really what is needed?
I get the sense that the Special Forces are being used extensively in the border regions with Pakistan. Surveillance/Intelligence and a quick reaction force for these areas. Nothing really to confirm this other than various little bits and pieces from numerous articles. In the short term I'm sure we'll never really know what the Special Forces are really up to.
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