Afghan troops to rise

JOHN Howard is expected to announce this week a major increase to Australia’s military deployment in Afghanistan, including a 200-strong special forces taskforce.

The special forces task group, drawn from the Special Air Service Regiment and 4RAR commandos, will be deployed to Oruzgan province, where NATO forces are expecting a fresh offensive from Taliban insurgents in the coming months. They will bolster the Australian reconstruction taskforce currently based at Tarin Kowt. In addition, Mr Howard is expected to announce the deployment of a 150-strong air defence radar unit.

As Afghanistan is accepted by the ALP as a ‘good’ war rather then Iraq which is a ‘bad’ war, I wouldn’t imagine the increase will get much coverage….no political mileage for the ALP here. In fact Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philipines, Indonesia, the Pacific Islands, London, Spain, Australia’s law courts, Iran, Southern Thailand and any where else they raise their ugly heads are all theatres of the one war. I wonder if the ALP Defence policy paper has a stand for each and every theatre based on it’s probablity of making Howard and Bush look incompetant….who knows.