Right: Afghanistan has know many would-be conquerers, from the US-led alliance of the present day back to the British in the nineteenth century, when writers such as Rudyard Kipling were captivated by the romantic savagery of this harshly beautiful land.
Further implications
On November 21, 2010, it was announced that the nations of the NATO-led force currently fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan had negotiated with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to begin putting the battlefield under his control in early 2011 and to move Western troops to a support role by 2014.
(NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a mutual support alliance of nations of which the United States is a prime member. NATO formally became deployed in Afghanistan in 2003.)
This is no absolute timeline as the United States and some of its NATO allies have declared that implementation will depend on the readiness of the Afghan forces to assume control of the military security of their own country. The Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has indicated that the allies would stand by Kabul after its combat mission ends.
However, the coalition's second largest troop provider, Britain, has set a 'firm deadline' of 2015 for withdrawing its fighting force, and Spain has indicated its own involvement could be over by 2012
The United States' position has been somewhat ambivalent as President Obama has stated, 'But my goal is to make sure by 2014 we have transitioned Afghans into the lead, and it is a goal to make sure that we are not still engaged in combat operations of the sort that we're involved with now.
Certainly our footprint will have been significantly reduced.'
A top White House aide was reported as saying individual NATO countries would choose when to end combat operations but that the United States had not yet taken that decision.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has stated that no date has been set for the handover of power to Afghan police and army officers in Oruzgan, the province where about 80 per cent of Australia's contingent of 1550 troops are located.
Prime Minister Gillard stated, 'It is important that when we start the process of transition in an area of Afghanistan, we are confident that the Afghan local forces can take the security leadership and sustain it...
[However] we do believe that we are on track to complete the training of the Afghan national army in Oruzgan in two to four years.'
It is true that developments on the ground in Afghanistan will have a large part in determining the rate at which the coalition forces withdraw from the country. However, another factor will certainly be the extent of political and voter support for the war in the countries concerned. If Australia's troop losses continue along their current trajectory, the war is likely to become a very unpopular one in this country.
Despite this, it is difficult to imagine Australia withdrawing from Afghanistan while the United States still asks for Australian support. It is even less possible to imagine Australian forces remaining after the United States forces have withdrawn. Whatever the other justifications for Australia's involvement in Afghanistan maintaining the alliance with the United States is pivotal.