Thread: Taliban message, you have the watches, we have the time. Aussies in Afganistan

Came across this, I think it is a good report , our boys did well, in a cluster****. Bob







Australia in Afghanistan: Longest war draws to a 'bittersweet' end after 12 years

By Chris Masters
Updated Mon 11 Nov 2013, 1:34pm AEDT
Photo: Time for reflection: Australia's mission in Afghanistan was never simple, and it was fought on a new type of battlefield (Supplied: Australian War Memorial)

Map: Afghanistan

Australian soldiers are obliged to adopt a never-too-hard attitude, conditioned by history and training to stick with the fight against all odds. All very Gallipoli - right up to that moment of withdrawal.
Now, after 12 years in Afghanistan, with 40 fatalities, 260 serious injuries, and more than $7.5 billion spent, the obvious conclusion is that it was too hard.
When Prime Minister Tony Abbott joined Australian forces at their Uruzgan base in October, he defined the moment as "bittersweet" - the conflict trailing to its conclusion not in victory or defeat but with, "we hope, an Afghanistan that is better for our presence here".
This accounting after all that sacrifice, though fair and realistic, could sound a touch lame.
That is, except to those who have been there. Over the years, Australians arriving in Afghanistan were swiftly acculturated to the task ahead, every bit as steep as the Hindu Kush looming beyond.
Four Corners in Afghanistan

• A Careful War - Part 1 (2010): Chris Masters gives an insight into the perspectives of the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.
• A Careful War - Part 2 (2010): Australian troops head into uncharted territory to win the faith of a brutalised people.
• In Their Sights (2011): Behind the scenes in the controversial 'kill-capture' campaign.
• Blood and Honour (2012): Geoff Thompson takes a hard-headed look at the state of war and peace in Afghanistan.

They were there to protect Afghans, while killing Afghans. They were required to navigate a maze of tribal contours - befriend one group and you alienate another. The cultural challenges called more for an army of anthropologists. Full body searches are not the best means of winning hearts and minds, but what else could the soldiers do in a place where children are wired with high explosives?
Yes we managed to build 200 schools, but where do you find the teachers? And how do you handle the corrupt governor and the illiterate police chief intent on skimming the budget and manipulating welfare, let alone the basics of dealing with literacy rates that can run close to zero?
I first visited Uruzgan for Four Corners in 2007 to make Forward Base Afghanistan. The forecast then shared by the Australian and Dutch commanders was that the mission would take at least 20 more years. At that time, with one Australian killed in action, there was little public disquiet back at home.
When I returned in 2010 to make a two-part series, A Careful War, the casualty count had risen commensurate with opposition. By then the mission had morphed from counter-terrorism to counter-insurgency. While our politicians agreed on the worth of staying the course, they had not managed to bring the public with them.
After broadcast, the surprise for me was the way viewers responded - with even greater shock. Our camera had taken them to a new-age battlefield devoid of frontline and no man's land, where a farmer with a hoe could switch to insurgent with a rifle and back again in the space of a minute.
The complaints from my own industry of unnecessary obstacles to the reporting an already complicated story have never abated. I began to worry that Australia's longest war was becoming our worst-reported war.
Commandos took the fight to the enemy; but time was on the Taliban's side

Photo: Australian Special Operations Task Group soldiers make their way to a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter in Shah Wali Kot, 2013 (Defence Department)

Having the time to confront these obstacles and win trust from the Australian Defence Force, I was able to return in 2011 to embed with Australian special forces, this time for Network Ten.
It was not difficult to understand why public opposition continued to grow, when a shifting rationale failed to clarify the purpose; when benefits were hard to see, and costs were predominantly written in red. With the casualty count touching 30, Afghanistan had become a narrative of loss.
Once inside the special forces' Camp Russell compound, one of the first soldiers to offer a helping hand was a tall, smart and shy commando, Corporal Cam Baird. He would become the 40th Australian killed in action.
Australia's war in Afghanistan:


Australia's presence in Afghanistan dates back to 2001 when three special forces squadrons were deployed.

Read a full timeline of Australia's involvement here...


The big surprise this time was seeing Australians aggressively and effectively on the front foot. Skill and speed was making a difference. Highly trained special forces soldiers teamed with US helicopter crews to terrify the Taliban. Australian Special Air Service Regiment units were killing and capturing an insurgent leadership which soon shunned the province. Meanwhile Australian commandos working with the US Drug Enforcement Agency took out hundreds of heroin factories, at incalculable cost to the insurgency war chest.
Thousands of Taliban-cum-anti-government elements were being eliminated, but this metric did not so much count. Coalition military success could only be affirmed if it accompanied progressive nation building. And that was something that would take much more than a decade.
In turn, while simple and crude, the Taliban tactic of contesting the ground with homemade bombs and an overarching strategy of waiting out the 50-nation Coalition was effective. "You have the watches, we have the time," became their signature refrain.
In general I respected the Coalition effort, partly because the complexities deserved better understanding, and because, conspicuously, we were not on the wrong side.
But when green on blue casualties began to spike late in 2011 it felt like time to go. There was no single explanation, just a rising smell of a struggle that had bled on for too long.
Over time I came to know some of the soldiers to be lost, as well as their families. I have never been able to bring myself to say the sacrifice was futile, mainly because of nobility and generosity in the mission's humanitarian purpose, which can't be dismissed.
Within the Afghanistan gallery at the Australian War Memorial are resonating observations of a never-simple story.
Aid worker David Savage, who almost lost his life to a suicide bomber, tells of entering a classroom and seeing young girls talking and laughing, a basic right denied by the Taliban.
And Army chaplain Rob Sutherland reflects on moral victory written in the conduct of returning personnel: "We may not be able to tangibly demonstrate from maps or from statistics what we've done in Afghanistan, but we know in the hearts and minds of our soldiers who've been there that we've done a good job. We know that we've been across as good representatives of the culture from which we come, and we know that we've upheld our military traditions in the way that we've fought."
Photo: Australian commandos in a chopper over Afghanistan, 2012 (Australian Defence Force)

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Mike, Australia was also negotiating for a Free Trade Agreement with the USA at that time and we got it IMHO partly because of our support of the yanks or correctly "being a good friend".

I believe we are negotiating a free trade agreement with China. Please tell me we don't have to " be a good friend " with them as well. Bob