The Afghan Surge (AUSTRALIA)

Very soon the US administration will put real pressure on Kevin Rudd to send more troops to Afghanistan. That will pose a real problem, because the Prime Minister has adopted a strange and ultimately untenable position on this ugly and difficult war. His words do not match his deeds, and they probably do not match his convictions either.

On the one hand, he has talked up the importance of the conflict, the depth of Australia's interest in a successful outcome, and the need for the international community to send more troops to make it work. He even went to a NATO summit in Bucharest last year to lecture NATO leaders on the need to do more. On the other hand, he has no plans to send any more Australians. The 1000 troops committed by the Howard government is only about 2 per cent of the total coalition.

It's not hard to see how Rudd has got himself into this position. He talked big about Afghanistan before the election in 2007, to show that his promise to withdraw from Iraq didn't mean he was soft on national security. Once in power, he was eager to show the Bush administration that he was a loyal ally, and happily accepted their deal: they would not complain about his withdrawal from Iraq if he would help pester NATO members about doing more in Afghanistan.

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