Australian sources are saying that Australia has refused repeated requests from the US to send more troops to Afghanistan and to assume operational control of coalition forces in the province of Oruzgan. They currently have a total of 1550 troops in combat. Aussie PM Julia Gillard and the Defence Minister Stephen Smith are due to attend the conference in Lisbon to discuss the schedule for transition in which coalition troops will 'hand over control of specific regions to Afghan forces' starting next year. Oh yes?
Australian defence sources are telling Aussie bloggers linked this site that the American military are ‘’sick and tired of Australia not doing enough … they’d like us to be doing more. Any discussion on leadership [in Oruzgan] is quickly terminated by Australian politicians,” one source said. There has been a lot of speculation about Australia’s role in the conflict. In May John Faulkner, the then Defence Minister denied being asked to take control of the operation in Oruzgan, saying, when asked “absolutely not”.
No comments:
Post a Comment