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.