Australia: No US request for more troops

SYDNEY — Australia said it has not been asked to send more troops to Afghanistan and does not expect Washington to make any quick decisions on a top-level warning that the war there could be lost without more multinational forces.

The warning came in a report to US President Barack Obama from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, who said militants have the initiative in the war and the need to revise strategy was urgent.

Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan — the largest contribution of any country outside NATO — after boosting its contingent by almost 500 in April at Washington's request.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his government had been given a copy of McChrystal's report, and was considering it.

"We have not received a request for a further troop or military contribution, and I'm not anticipating one," Smith told reporters in New York, where he is attending UN meetings and also met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"We're not expecting that any decisions will be made quickly in the aftermath of Gen. McChrystal's review," Smith said.

He said Australia's government would be willing to consider requests for other forms of additional assistance to Afghanistan, such as training and development assistance.

I'm surprised the Aussies would want to get further involved in the shambles that U.S. foreign and military policy is becoming, under the malignant direction of its Mau-Mau-in-Chief.

Kudos to the standup Aussies, who after all lost hundreds of people in the Bali and World Trade Center outrages, but this time, our leadership may be playing to lose.

A quick search shows 52 Australians died in the World Trade Center, 88 more in the 2002 Bali bombing, and 4 more in the 2005 Bali bombing(s).

That's 144 total.

Plus there may have been more in the 2003 and 2004 bombings in Indonesia, and in Madrid.

There was also the bombing of the Australian embassy in Indonesia in 2004 (a one tonne car bomb that killed 9 Indonesians, wrecked the embassy but killed no Australians), and the Jakarta bombings in July this year which killed 3 Aussies.

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