Labor to keep 'niche' troops in Iraq (Australian Opposition)

ANY withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq by a Labor government would not include soldiers protecting diplomats in Baghdad, Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland said today.

Mr McClelland, who has argued for the phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq, said Labor would maintain a "niche" presence in the region.

While Labor would bring home the 450 Australian soldiers deployed in the Al-Muthanna and Dikar provinces, Mr McClelland said a ship patrolling the Gulf and Orion aircraft flying over the Middle East region would remain in an "oversight capacity".

Mr McClelland said the security detail in Baghdad would not follow their colleagues home.

I hope not.

We have an election later this year and at the moment Labor is considerably ahead in the polls (61-39) but I do honestly expect that to come down as people get to know Labor's new Leader better and as Labor releases policies and has to stake their claim on something specific. The Coalition also has a large enough majority in Parliament to resist a moderately sized swing against it.

Just out of interest, how strong is opposition in Australia to the presence of Aussie troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Thank goodness the Australians (to my knowledge) have not lost any troops in action yet in these theatres (with the exception of the brave Aussie pilot downed with 9 Brits on a Hercules a while back). If the Australians did start to have regular losses would the Howard government be under alot of pressure to pull out?

It’s somewhat hard to answer that to be honest. Opinion polls show a majority of Australians believe the war in Iraq should never have started - but most believe that we need to stay while there is still work to do. They want our troops home as fast as possible, as long as the job is done. One thing that lost Mark Latham the 2004 election was his pledge to bring Australia’s troops home by Christmas, whatever the circumstances, and I think the same attitudes prevail today.

Action in Afghanistan is generally supported by most people.

If Australia started suffering significant numbers of casualties, it would increase the pressure on the Howard government, but I don’t think by all that much. Most of the pressure would come from those already opposed to the war. Most people understand that casualties are a part of war - we’ve been very lucky so far, but people are prepared for that.

Just for the record, Australia has suffered one combat death in Afghanistan - Sergeant Andrew Russell of the Australian Special Air Service Regiment was killed in action on the 16th February 2002. Since then we have been very lucky - our only fatalities in this war have been accidents, or Australians serving with UK or US forces.

Thank you for your answer. I’m very sorry that I didn’t hear about Sergeant Andrew Russell (may he rest in peace). I’ve read that the Aussies have been very lucky given their experiences not to lose more men.

I hope that they suffer no more casualties.

It seems that the political situation in Australia regarding Iraq is similar to the UK- now that we are there, we must finish the job. Afghanistan is also supported across the spectrum in the UK.

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