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AFGHANISTAN

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: August 11, 2009, 12:28:12 pm »


SAS head back to front line

By TRACY WATKINS - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Jumping into Uncle Sam's sewer!

New Zealand's war in Afghanistan looks likely to be one of its longest military deployments as Special Air Service troops prepare to rejoin the front line.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday it would be three to five years before troops could quit the troubled country altogether as many as 14 years after Helen Clark first dispatched the SAS in the wake of the 2001 attack on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington DC.

New Zealand's involvement in the war has so far cost nearly $200 million. "I was hoping for an exit strategy a little faster than that but ... that is the timeframe that is realistic and will support all our efforts," Mr Key said.

Up to 70 SAS soldiers are poised to leave for Afghanistan after the Cabinet agreed yesterday to their return after a request from the United States. They will be deployed in Afghanistan for up to 18 months, in three rotations.

Mr Key would not say where the troops would be serving or how soon they would leave but has previously made it clear that they would be ready to move as soon as the Cabinet had made its decision.

Approval to send the SAS back to Afghanistan their fourth deployment since the war started followed a review of New Zealand's military involvement there.

Mr Key confirmed that he had briefed US officials last week on New Zealand's likely commitment of the SAS, which comes as he prepares for his first official visit to the US as prime minister next month.

Cabinet also agreed to begin winding down New Zealand's military involvement in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, where up to 140 Kiwi soldiers have been based since 2003, helping with reconstruction efforts as part of a provincial reconstruction team.

But Mr Key said it would be several years before New Zealand quit the province altogether, adding that it would provide more civilian workers to help fill the gap, in education, agriculture and health.

The deployment comes as conditions in Afghanistan become increasingly dangerous, but Mr Key said he did not consider troops to be in greater danger than at any time previously.

But the decision to send the SAS faces opposition. Labour leader Phil Goff said the way to end the conflict was through winning "hearts and minds", not sending more combat troops.

"This has fast moved in the direction of being a civil war between the Taleban elements ... our belief is that the best way of winning in Afghanistan is by winning people over to the side of having a democratic regime and rejecting terrorism. We are not convinced that can be done by simply increasing the number of combat forces."

New Zealand's longest military deployment is in the Middle East with the United Nations' Truce Supervision Organisation, which the country has been part of since just after World War II.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/politics/2738162/SAS-head-back-to-front-line
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