Cockatoo RSL sub-branch president Bob Simmonds last week questioned the need for a continued presence in Afghanistan. 31233
WORLD War II digger and Cockatoo RSL sub-branch president Bob Simmonds last week called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
At a community cabinet meeting in Emerald last Tuesday 19 May, Mr Simmonds questioned Australia’s continued presence in a “senseless war”.
“When are you going to pull our troops out of Afghan and those places?”
“They are getting nowhere fast … I think we should take them home again,” Mr Simmonds said.
Mr Rudd said his government was committed to removing troops from Iraq but that the decision to provide extra defence personal in Afghanistan had been needed.
“We have one objective – to train sufficient Afghan national army troops in the province we are responsible for in order to hand security over to them so we can bring our troops home,” he said.
“This is going to take some time but we have worked with the Americans and others about how many Afghan battalions need to be trained.”
