New Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced the withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan, declaring that the return home of more than 1,000 troops before Christmas would be “bittersweet” because Afghanistan remained a dangerous place where many foreign soldiers had died.
Speaking at a special ceremony at the Australian-run base in Tarin Kot in Uruzgan province, Prime Minister Abbott announced the end of his nation’s longest military engagement. About 1,000 will be ordered home by the end of the year, although there is a commitment to train Afghan National Security Forces, meaning several hundred Australians will continue to serve in non-combat roles in the country.
Abbott hopes the US-led campaign will leave a positive legacy in Afghanistan.
“Australia’s longest war is ending not with victory, not with defeat, but with, we hope, an Afghanistan that’s better for our presence here,” he said.
Abbott said that Australian troops in Afghanistan have helped to build 200 schools as well as health clinics, while roads have been upgraded. He said Australians don’t fight wars of conquest but fight for peoples’ right to live their own lives and worship in their own way.
Australia, like all other foreign forces, has paid a high price during the long conflict.
40 Australians have died and 260 returned home wounded in a war for which public support had steadily waned.
