Australian Government to Consider Afghanistan Troop Deployment.

Australia is seriously considering sending troops to Afghanistan and expects to have a decision within weeks, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said tonight.

"There have been requests to us (for troops) on many occasions, actually, at particularly low and middle levels but I recall the secretary general of NATO when he visited Australia earlier in the year particularly asking that we make a contribution," Mr Downer said.

"And now that we've wound down our contribution to the peace-keeping force in East Timor and we've wound back significantly our operation in the Solomon Islands we can have another look at this and we will."

news.com.au

Well, with no Australian federal election due in the near future, and also that fact that the Government/Coalition have recently regained majority control of the senate, i would expect the answer to be a resounding "yes".

My guess would be that a certain percentage of the proposed deployment would be SAS forces, if not all.

Sanc'.

Alexander Downer needs to get the sack. Give that islamic mufti that got back Douglas Wood back to OZ the job.

I noticed Schapelle has been back on the headlines for the last couple of days, while in other news we have a quarter million people protesting workers rights and a government that has just publically aligned themselves with the Evengelicals plus more troops on the menu.

Schapelle is going to get a lot of attention over the next couple weeks it would seem.

TheShroudOfMemphis, don't you just love mainstream news media

But, for all intents and purposes the Labor is pretty much powerless now that Howard has control of the Senate.

Schapelle Corby's retrial will prove to be a great 'foil' in regard to the Howard government pushing through new bills and legislation behind the other headlines in the news, for example this proposed Afghanistan deployment.

Sanc'.
edit:sp


[edit on 5-7-2005 by sanctum]

Well, what do you know about that? And just in time for the opium harvest, too. What a coincidence. I once knew a beautiful Aussie gal named Christine, and when I asked her about drug problems down under, she told me they had pretty much skipped over marijuana and gone straight to heroin. What do you know about that?

Heroin is a problem in most countries. Marijuana is rife here. I don't think she knows what she is talking about. Or she is limited by her own localised view of the country. Most heroin here comes from asia.

Well, it looks to me like it is about to start coming from Afghanistan, too.

Hmm

CIA-supported govt in Afghanistan produces record heroin harvests, overthrown by the Taliban

The Taliban significantly reduce Afghani heroin production.

Taliban overthrown in dodgy war where the CIA are involved in creating justification for the war.

CIA have long history of shipping drugs to increase funding / create secret budgets.

Heroin production now at record levels.

Good work Team USA - making the world a safer place for all!

Excellent news.

We need more countries in the world supporting the west and the US in general in the war against terror!

If all the countries that could help did, this thing would be over alot quicker.........

Where did you get these figures that heroin is being produced in record numbers? I am curious to read this article/book.

Though the CIA is the one pushing alot of buttons behind the scenes. I think the current presidential administration is the one standing behind them telling them which buttons are the ones needing pushing.

Hey jnkhampton,

The US doesn't issue Kalashnikov Assault Rifles to its soldiers! You're avatar appears to be holding one, although I could be mistaken. That is certainly no M-16.

There are competing reports on the size of the Afghan opium crop this year, depending on the source of the information you consider (isn't that a surprise?). If it is really as big as reported by reliable sources, which I may research and document for you (as you seem reluctant to do this yourself, for some unknown reason), once it is delivered and processed into heroin we will have a record supply for a record number of ever increasing opiate addicts all over the world.

Meanwhile, this story appeared in my morning paper today:

Report: Sheriffs believe meth is top U.S. drug problem
Ryan Lenz, (AP)

"More than half of the sheriffs interviewed for a National Association of Counties survey released Tuesday said they consider meth the most serious problem facing their departments."

"The report comes soon after the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy restated its stance that marijuana remains the nation's most substantial drug problem."

The real story behind this article is what it doesn't mention. Nobody talks about heroin addiction statistics in the US or around the world anymore. Did it just go away? I don't think so.

I think it has infiltrated our society, leveraged our political process, compromised our law enforcement and emergency services, undermined the medical establishment, and made countless hopeless addicts out of children who never got to make a choice in the matter.

See 'Heroin/Opium is the REAL Problem', a thread by me right here on ATS. You can learn how to use a search by looking for that, if you want.




[edit on 6-7-2005 by Icarus Rising]

Originally posted by jnkhampton
Where did you get these figures that heroin is being produced in record numbers? I am curious to read this article/book.

How could you not have heard this by now?
It's been mentioned many, many, times on news shows and on the internet.

Here's an article from June 2005:

Alertnet
"The poppy crop in 2004 was the largest ever because everybody thought they could grow poppy with impunity but we have already turned the corner, as a survey of this year's crop showed in February," Qaderi said.

The survey, carried out jointly by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Ministry of Counter Narcotics, indicated that the amount of land under poppy cultivation had decreased in comparison with 2004 in all but five of the country's 34 provinces.

Despite this progress, although the amount of land under opium production is set to drop in 2005, the nation's per-hectare productivity of the deadly crop has risen.

The head of UNODC, Antonio Mario Costa, said that despite the reduction in cultivation and the eradication of poppy fields, production was likely to still be significant this year. This was partly due to a wetter winter after several years of drought in Afghanistan.

[edit on 6-7-2005 by AceOfBase]

It's been featured many times on the Beeb. If you're struggling for free independent news sources feel free to use ours!

Example report

news.bbc.co.uk...

'US officials blame Karzai'

Obviously nothing to do with removing the Taliban and putting the drug warlords in charge of the country

[edit on 6-7-2005 by CTID56092]

Are our Government Intelligence Agencies Talking to each Other?

America unaware of Afghan plea.

July 8, 2005

The United States has made no request for Australia to deploy troops to Afghanistan and is unlikely to make such a request when the Prime Minister, John Howard, visits Washington the week after next.

The US Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick, said he was unaware of "any particular request" for deployment of Australian forces, saying the US "very much appreciated the Australian help we've had".

In fact, Mr Zoellick seemed unaware that senior Afghan government officials had already made a request for an Australian deployment.

Mr Howard has said he is considering a request to send troops to Afghanistan, where the security situation has deteriorated in recent weeks, with an increase in attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda groups against US and Afghan security forces.

Yesterday, he said cabinet would consider a new troop commitment next week, and "if a decision is taken, I will announce it on behalf of the Government".

"We will take into account the advice we receive from the military and I am not going to pre-empt that discussion," he said.

There had been "a standing request from the Government of Afghanistan over quite a period of time to a lot of countries, including Australia, to send troops" and "now we are going to look at it".

The Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, said Labor would support a further deployment if there was winding back of forces in Iraq, something Mr Howard is unlikely to countenance on the eve of his visit to Washington.

Mr Howard criticised Mr Beazley for "sending very confused signals" on Afghanistan, given that Labor's defence spokesman, Robert McClelland, had unconditionally supported a renewed military deployment.

Afghanistan and Iraq were "two separate issues", Mr Howard said.

SMH

July 07, 2005

Prime Minister John Howard was seriously considering a request to send more troops to Afghanistan, with a decision likely as early as next week, he said today.

Australia is under increasing pressure to extend its troop deployment to the country after a renewed plea this week by Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Dr Abdullah called for help from Australia to stem escalating violence, with the shooting down of a US helicopter by Taliban forces last week highlighting fresh security concerns in his country.

Afghanistan's ambassador Mahmoud Saikal asked Canberra last week to commit to sending more troops.

Mr Saikal said great progress had been made in Afghanistan since 2002 and a further deployment of troops would provide stability as the country prepares for elections in September.

Mr Howard said the request would be considered by Cabinet next week.

"There's been a standing request from the government of Afghanistan over quite a period of time to a lot of countries including Australia to send troops," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

theaustralian.news.com.au

What's going on? The US Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick, claims he has no knowledge of this...yet Australia has Pine Gap!

Gimme a break,

Sanc'.
edit: sorry about the quote length, but SMH is reg req'.

Australian Cabinet to Consider Afghanistan Tomorrow (12th)

Cabinet will tomorrow consider whether to bolster its military commitment to Afghanistan.

Australia currently has one mine clearance officer in the troubled nation.

Prime Minister John Howard, who heads to Washington on Friday for meetings with US President George W Bush, promises the public will be the first to know if troops are to be sent to Afghanistan.
The government has been hedging over recent months on whether to increase its numbers in Afghanistan but pressure for action has been building.

Article

Given current events, i think Australia will be deploying troops to Afghanistan within a matter of weeks.

Sanc'.

Diggers resume Taliban hunt.

Did i say weeks?...i meant days.

The Federal Government will today order Australian troops back to Afghanistan, two years after they last fought there in the terrorist mountain havens.

Labor has backed in principle a deployment to fight what party leader Kim Beazley has called "terrorism central".

Most of the previous deployment of Diggers to Afghanistan were withdrawn by late 2003, and at present Australia has just one army officer in Kabul, helping with mine clearing.

Mr Howard is expected to announce a decision before he leaves for Washington late in the week, to prevent being accused of telling the Americans before the Australian people.

news.com.au

Sanc'.

Australia will send 150 special forces troops to Afghanistan in September in a bid to curb renewed resistance in the war-torn nation.

Prime Minister John Howard announced the deployment today and said the 12-month mission would cost up to $100 million.
"We have received at a military level requests from both the US and others, and also the Government of Afghanistan, and we have therefore decided in order to support the efforts of others to support in turn the government of Afghanistan to dispatch a Special Forces Task group, which will comprise some 150 personnel," he said.

news.com.au

I wish these troops well, and hope they all return safely.

Sanc'.

Firstly, Howard wouldn't even be mentioning a chance of ID cards if the US and UK weren't moving ahead with implementing theirs. So from this i will go out on a limb and say US and UK WILL HAVE ID CARDS and Australia will have them debated until we have something blown up by our Government.

National ID cards back on the table: PM

National identification cards should be back on the agenda in the wake of the London terrorists attacks, Prime Minister John Howard says.

"This is an issue that ought to be back on the table but back on the table as part of inevitably looking at everything in the wake of the terrible tragedy in London," he told reporters.

"We haven't made a decision to have an ID card in this country but it should properly be on the table and we should properly assess whether in the light of what's happened in the 17 or 18 years that have gone by since the Australia Card was debated."

Mr Howard vigorously campaigned against the Australia Card proposal which was raised in 1987, but he said times had changed.

"That's 18 years ago and it may well be that circumstances have changed."

news.ninemsn.com.au...