Australia to Spend $6Bn In Afghanistan By 2014

Australia's Ministry of Defence said the country will have spent about $6 billion on the war in Afghanistan by the time its troops 'leave' in 2014.
Defence minister Stephen Smith defended the country's decade-long involvement in the Afghan conflict in The Australian parliament on Sunday.
"It is in our national interest to be in Afghanistan, not just with our alliance partner, the United States, but also with 47 other members of the International Security Assistance Force acting under a United Nations mandate," Mr Smith said.
Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, most of them based in Uruzgan province. The country has lost 29 of its soldiers in Afghanistan over the past 10 years. I wonder how may Aussies agree that squandering $6 billion, to say nothing of the lives, is in 'the national interest'