Diggers: Complacent on Status?

Our Soldiers Are Not Trained For The Wars They Are In – Cynthia Banham, Sydney Morning Herald.

Many Australians revere the military, and it occupies a sacred place in their consciousness. Soldiers put their lives on the line when we ask them to, in the name of keeping us safe. They are doing so now in Afghanistan, where an 11th soldier lost his life last weekend. But has our Defence Force become complacent about its status?

An adviser to the British and US militaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dr Daniel Marston, suggests that some Australian officers have questioned, to him, whether Australia’s team training and mentoring Afghan soldiers is as educated on counter-insurgency operations as it should be. His comments hint at a disconnection in the political and military establishment over the nature of the mission, and teaching of Australian soldiers who are fighting there.

Are we fighting terrorists in Afghanistan or are we fighting a counter-insurgency to protect the local population? And if we are fighting a counter-insurgency, are our soldiers properly equipped for it? In the past few months there has been a great strategic shift in the way the war is being fought. The US is now fighting a war more focused on protecting civilians, and less on hunting Taliban. Coalition forces are trying to convince Afghans that – this time round – they will not abandon them to the insurgents.

Where possible, coalition troops are being partnered with Afghan soldiers, and are working across provincial boundaries, having learnt that confining troops to certain areas (all the Canadians in Kandahar, all the British in Helmand) is inflexible and that battalions must be able to move across the country. As one Australian historian recently there observed: “Insurgents pay as little heed to the provincial borders as they do to the Pakistani frontier.”

While the Americans, in short, are fighting a counter-insurgency campaign, consider what the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said about Australia’s mission this week. The “underpinning reason” for being there, aside from the US alliance, was “acting against the global threat of terrorism”…

Much more at The Sydney Morning Herald. Join the discussion at Small Wars Council.