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This week Howard announced the effective doubling of Australia’s military commitment to Afghanistan. This will reach 1000 Diggers by next year. It is one of the most dangerous and militarily important troop commitments Australia has made in decades.

The key to the new commitment, to leave within days, is a special forces group of 300. This will be made up of a Special Air Service contingent, backed up by commandos with heavier weaponry and armour, and a strong intelligence component.

There are two separate Allied operations in Afghanistan right now. There is Operation Enduring Freedom, led by the Americans with British participation. And there is the International Security Assistance Force, which is a NATO operation and manned mainly by Europeans and Canadians.

The Howard Government wanted to deploy its special operations group as part of Operation Enduring Freedom because it has a more robust mandate and stronger rules of engagement.

But this was opposed by the Dutch. Overall the Dutch have more than 2000 soldiers in Afghanistan. Australians, who form a 400-strong Reconstruction Task Force in Tarin Kowt in Oruzgun, work intimately with the Dutch.

The Australians have a high respect for the Dutch. But the Dutch are in Afghanistan as part of ISAF, not as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

ISAF has a long list of Taliban personnel it is prepared to target. These are the so-called high-value targets. However, at times the restrictions on its rules of engagement are ridiculous. If ISAF coalition forces discover a house with two Taliban high-value targets, and four other Taliban fighters who are not on the list of ISAF approved targets, it cannot attack the house. This is not a scenario of protecting civilians but of protecting Taliban targets who are just not specifically on the list.

The Australians were not interested in this kind of handicapped engagement. Sending soldiers into harm’s way is a serious and profoundly consequential business. Canberra’s view is you either send them in to do the business, or you’re better off not sending them at all. …

Most European nations that do deploy in Afghanistan do so in the much more relatively peaceful north, rather than the violent south where the Australians are.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has complained to the Europeans directly about this.

A number of the Europeans apply restrictive caveats to what their troops will and won’t do. One of the worst sorts of caveat is geographic, restricting their forces to particular provinces. This led to one notorious situation where Canadians were in military trouble and called for air support. Nearby Europeans wouldn’t give it because they could not leave their designated province. …

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