Majority of public wants Australian troops to withdraw Afghanistan: poll
Majority of public wants Australian troops to withdraw Afghanistan: poll
10:59, June 08, 2011 
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The majority of the public wants Australian troops pulled out of Afghanistan, following the announcement of the fourth death of an Australian in the past two weeks.
Seventy-two percent of respondents to a Yahoo7 Internet poll have said they want a withdrawal from the decade-old war.
This came after the announcement that combat engineer Sapper Rowan Robinson was killed during a mission to destroy a massive weapons cache in Helmund province on Monday night.
His death takes the number of Australians killed in Afghanistan to 27 since 2001. Robinson is also the fourth Australian soldier died in the past two weeks.
In respond to the poll, Defense Minister Stephen Smith said he is not surprised, but he insisted the effort in Afghanistan will continue until 2014.
"It doesn't surprise me in the face of the terrible fortnight that we've had four tragic deaths," he told the Seven Network on Wednesday in Brussels of Belgium, where he is meeting North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defense ministers.
"In that context people would be questioning why we are there."
Smith said Australian troops were likely to remain in Afghanistan until late 2014, and he expected more deaths.
"We have to steel ourselves for more but we are on track to hand over responsibility for security matters to the Afghan national army and the Afghan national and local police by the end of 2014," he said.
"We don't want to be there forever, we want to get out.
"It is the case that we've been in Afghanistan for a long period of time and my own analysis is ... the position that we're in now is the position that we've arrived at six or seven years too late."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Julia Gillard earlier said Australian troops face a difficult task in Afghanistan, particularly as they enter the local fighting season, but she reassured the nation that Australians were not fighting an "endless war".
Australian currently has about 1,500 troops in the country, based in the southern Oruzgan Province.
Source: Xinhua
Seventy-two percent of respondents to a Yahoo7 Internet poll have said they want a withdrawal from the decade-old war.
This came after the announcement that combat engineer Sapper Rowan Robinson was killed during a mission to destroy a massive weapons cache in Helmund province on Monday night.
His death takes the number of Australians killed in Afghanistan to 27 since 2001. Robinson is also the fourth Australian soldier died in the past two weeks.
In respond to the poll, Defense Minister Stephen Smith said he is not surprised, but he insisted the effort in Afghanistan will continue until 2014.
"It doesn't surprise me in the face of the terrible fortnight that we've had four tragic deaths," he told the Seven Network on Wednesday in Brussels of Belgium, where he is meeting North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defense ministers.
"In that context people would be questioning why we are there."
Smith said Australian troops were likely to remain in Afghanistan until late 2014, and he expected more deaths.
"We have to steel ourselves for more but we are on track to hand over responsibility for security matters to the Afghan national army and the Afghan national and local police by the end of 2014," he said.
"We don't want to be there forever, we want to get out.
"It is the case that we've been in Afghanistan for a long period of time and my own analysis is ... the position that we're in now is the position that we've arrived at six or seven years too late."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Julia Gillard earlier said Australian troops face a difficult task in Afghanistan, particularly as they enter the local fighting season, but she reassured the nation that Australians were not fighting an "endless war".
Australian currently has about 1,500 troops in the country, based in the southern Oruzgan Province.
Source: Xinhua
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（Editor：石希）
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