Australia Still Committed to Afghanistan

Added by Annika L. Krugel on February 20, 2011

In spite of the increasing number of death in the Afghan war, the Australian Prime Minister said that the country will still remain committed to Afghanistan and its war.

After Sapper Jamie Ronald Larcombe was killed, the death toll of Australian diggers who lost their lives in the Afghan war has risen to 23.

Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister, said that it is in the country’s best interest to continue being present on Afghan lands. She said that an Afghan interpreter has also died in the insurgent gunfire which erupted near the Wali patrol base.

According to Ms Gillard, 21-year old Jamie Larcombe was part of the same regimen as Caporal Richard Edward Atkinson. Caporal Atkinson died this February after a roadside bomb exploded. The Australian Prime Minister said that the nation is mourning Larcombe, who was “taking the fight to insurgents”.

Ms Gillard staid that the mission in Afghanistan is hard and that its costs are not being underestimated, but remaining there is in the national interest. She further added that she was “immeasurably sad” and reassured Australians that she is more than determined to go until the end with the Afghan mission.

The Prime Minister also told reporters who interviewed her in Canberra that Australia has both the means and the men to go through with this mission.