Afghan training may take four years: PM

Australia's commitment to Afghanistan will last for at least a decade, but the first
steps towards troop withdrawal will be outlined to NATO by Prime Minister Julia
Gillard next month.
The first parliamentary debate on the war, which started nine years ago and has cost
the lives of 21 Australian soldiers, began in Canberra on Tuesday.
Ms Gillard warned Australia could not afford to let Afghanistan slip back into the
hands of the Taliban and local warlords.
She said the government would spell out to a NATO summit in Lisbon how it would
start pulling out its 1550 troops.
"My firm view is that for transition to occur in an area, the ability of Afghan
forces to take the lead in security in that area must be irreversible," Ms Gillard
said.
"Our government will state this as a simple fact in discussions before and at Lisbon
- we must not transition out, only to transition back in."
Australia's main role - training and mentoring the 4th Brigade of the Afghan
National Army in Oruzgan Province - would take two to four years.
But Australia would "remain engaged" beyond 2014, the prime minister said.
"We expect this support, training and development task to continue in some form
through this decade at least," Ms Gillard said.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott called for Australia to do more in the war-ravaged
nation and spelled out his definition of victory.
Mr Abbott said the mission in Afghanistan was a war against a "pernicious ideology"
and to withdraw prematurely would see the Karzai government collapse and lead to a
"regional meltdown".
He warned against setting a withdrawal date, saying the best exit strategy was "to
win".
"For Australia, (winning) means completing the task of training the 4th Brigade (of
the Afghan National Army) and playing our part in ensuring that the central
government is capable of containing and defeating the insurgency," Mr Abbott said.
The prime minister said Afghanistan had been the training ground for terrorists
involved in every major attack on Australians - September 11, the two Bali bombings
and the Jakarta embassy bombing - and should never again be allowed to become a safe
haven for terrorists.
Mr Abbott said the opposition, which over the past few weeks has queried the
sufficiency of military resources in Afghanistan, now accepted after talking to
senior commanders that they had enough military hardware to do the current job.
But he said he believed that "given the critical stage of the military campaign and
the capabilities of Australia's armed forces, our instinct would be to do more
rather than less".
"As well, the government should regard our commitment to 1550 personnel in Oruzgan
as an average to be maintained over time rather than as a limit that's never to be
exceeded regardless of the military situation on the ground," he said.
Greens Leader Bob Brown, who will get his chance to address parliament next week,
said it was time to bring the troops home.
Senator Brown said it was a "hopeless war" and the corruption of the Karzai
government would make it difficult for the Australian-trained Afghan soldiers and
police to remain loyal to the regime.