In 2001 Australian policy was that Australian forces were in Afghanistan for the "War on Terror", not for "Afghanistan", meaning Australia was not there for nation building. As a consequence Australia sent the very tip of its land based spear. The very effective Special Air Services Regiment (SASR). The SASR is trained to be highly independent and conduct extended operations, behind enemy lines, and without resupply for a week or longer.
John Howard recently announced that the SASR will be heading back to Afghanistan for a twelve month tour. This was met by many in Australia with a sigh of relief that we would be sending "more troops" to help out. But the SASR isn't for civil order, or police work. They are not infantry, they are for discovering and destruction of enemy forces. From what I can glean from different news reports, it seems the US may be winding down its special forces operations in Afghanistan. The British are also preparing to send five thousand of their infantry to Afghanistan, with the British SAS and Australian SAS preparing the way for them. The final reason is that there has been a resurgence of Al Queda and Taliban fighters, especially in, near, or on the Pakistan border.
History
The SASR were first deployed in Brunei during
Konfrontasi
. Indonesia maintained pressure against Malaya throughout the early 1960s, with Indonesian special forces constantly breaking the border in Borneo. This was a platoon level conflict of jungle patrols - an ideal environment for highly trained and independent special forces. In Borneo one of the main opponents was the forerunner to Suharto's KOPASSUS. SASR later fought in Vietnam, working with US Special Forces. It was a similar environment to Konfrontasi, dominated by platoon level leadership and operations in a jungle environment. The SASR was deployed in East Timor in 1999 where they came up against KOPASSUS again. The SASR has also been used in numerous United Nations operations as security, training or as medical assets.
Afghanistan
The Australian SAS Regiment were heavily involved in the Afghanistan conflict, from December 2001 onwards. This included operations such as Slipper, ANACONDA and Mountain Lion. The latter which was along the Pakistani border. Initially US commanders did not understand the capability of the SASR. Australian SAS are trained to go deep behind enemy lines on protracted missions, often as long as a week without resupply, whereas many US Special Forces are more insertion and extraction. The US has far more hardware and back-end to support such operations. Australia does not, as a consequence stamina, independence operations and sustained tempo are valued qualities of the SASR.
Once the US Commanders discovered this aspect of the SASR,
they were happy to use them to their full capability
;
Initially US intelligence thought the SAS[R] had found Bin Laden, says Adam [a SASR soldier]. A jet was called and dropped a 500kg bomb but it exploded over 100 meters away in a creek bed. Follow up air-raids by A-10 warthog aircraft killed a number of suspected Al Qaeda fighters but opinions are still divided about the success of the raid.The independent streak of the SASR extended to their being denoted by long hair and beards. In November 2002 they returned to Australia. Iraq The SASR were used in the invasion of Iraq as the tip of the coalition spear , entering the country a full two days before formal hostilities started. The SASR entered Iraq by ground and air; the ground forces hitting Iraqi resistance thirty kilometres in. This was one of the first ground engagements of the invasion. The SASR groups that were dropped in by US air assets were the closest coalition forces to Baghdad for several days. Within a week in the SASR's area of operations, Iraqi military resistance had been neutralised. The SASR later captured Al Asad airbase which contained over fifty Iraqi Mig aircraft and nearly eight million kilograms of explosives. Between the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, the SASR have earnt the Australian forces international recognition for their effectiveness. Even being mentioned in the US Security White Paper. American military commanders are no idiots, they know good troops when they see them. Since the SASR proved their worth in Afghanistan they have become an integral part of coalition operations. SASR back to Afghanistan The SASR will be sent back to Afghanistan for another tour . This will most likely involve one hundred and fifty SASR troops. The twelve month deployment will incur a cost of approximately one hundred million AUD. John Howard did not make plainly clear why in his announcements, but it appears it is due to multiple reasons. There has been a resurgence of Taliban and Al Queda insurgents and operatives in Afghanistan which have been operating on, in, or nearby the Pakistan border. This is ideal territory and terrain for the SASR's capability. Howard was quoted as saying ;
Adam says the bomb missed, resulting in the escape of the high value target, who he suspects was Tur Yuldashev, the head of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and a highly experienced commander. But a recently published book about the operation, written by respected US Army Times journalist Sean Naylor, has suggested the target was Al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's personal physician and al-Qaeda's second in command.
The decision to send the troops was made after requests at a military level from the US, Afghanistan and other countries to help deal with resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, Mr Howard said.It also appears that the SASR will be used in conjunction with the British SAS to clear the way for the deployment of five thousand British regular infantry to Afghanistan ;
Up to two squadrons of British special forces are preparing to go to Afghanistan within weeks to provide the reconnaissance for an expected British deployment of more than 5,000 troops. ...It also appears that there is a possibility that either US Special Forces are being moved to Iraq, from Afghanistan, or US Special Forces are being over-whelmed in Afghanistan. Bob Brown was quoted as saying ;
The British and Australian special forces will fan out across the territory to be covered by the British battle group. They will identify the most serious threats in the region and gather intelligence on any Taliban activity.
The troops face a hostile environment, with Taliban fighters regrouping in southern Afghanistan backed up by members of Al-Qaeda, including specially trained suicide bombers.
Particularly with increasing reports now coming from Europe that the US wants to reduce and withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, Australia shouldn't be a convenient substitute for George Bush's domestic foreign policySince Afghanistan got some NATO and European approval, which Iraq did not, it is possible that the US is focusing on Iraq, and leaving Afghanistan to Europe and other nations who are politically incapable of committing forces to Iraq. Australia's Policy The Australian policy of going to Afghanistan for the War on Terror and not Afghanistan itself is being broken. John Howard is also sending a Provincial Reconstruction Team. This will comprise about two hundred people. Richard Woolcott's comment on Iraq, that no matter how effective the Australian assets there are, Australia is not committing enough manpower, nor money, to make Iraq a stable and reconstructed democratic nation, stands true for Afghanistan as well. Two hundred members of a Provincial Reconstruction Team will not change the security relationship outside of Kandahar, nor will one hundred and fifty members of the SASR. The latter being for the tracking down of Taliban and Al Queda fighters in the mountainous country along the Pakistani border. As a consequence, Australian policy toward both Iraq and Afghanistan is ad-hoc, and unfocused. This is in part a result of the Prime Minister not having to pass overseas deployments of troops through parliament. There is no accountability on the deployments mission, nor the policy that informs the mission of our military deployments. We do the Australian Defence Force a dis-service by allowing this situation to persist. cam
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