As another Australian family endures the soul-destroying grief of the loss of a young son in Afghanistan - the fourth in a week - the debate about the nation’s role in the campaign has shifted into fraught territory.
Some surveys show that the majority of Australians want the troops to be brought home immediately. Our political leaders say we must hold our nerve and harden our resolve for more losses in the weeks ahead.
Given that only two of the four latest casualties, Sgt Brett Wood and special-forces combat engineer Rowan Jaie Robinson, were killed in action fighting the Taliban the bipartisan position is the right one for a host of reasons.
For the people running the war, such as the Commander of Joint Task Force 633 Major General Angus Campbell, any withdrawal at this point would be a tactical and strategic disaster.
A thoughtful officer with several years as the civilian deputy national security adviser behind him, Campbell is hardly a gung ho warrior type, but the former special-forces officer is blunt in his assessment of the situation in Oruzgan Province.
“We have the initiative,” he said in his office at this dusty desert air base east of Dubai.
Campbell said that the insurgency has been pushed outside the population centres and low level enemy fighters were now asking the question, ‘Why are we fighting’?
“Their operations are less effective now compared to previous years,” he said.
“That is the product of very hard work by the Afghans and Coalition forces during the last 24 months to build the Afghan security force.”
Campbell wants to leave the Afghan government in control of security in Oruzgan in 2014 managing what by then would hopefully be a remnant insurgency.
His view is backed by the commander of Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan Brigadier General Abdul Hamid.
The hardened fighter believes that the insurgency is at a tipping point in Oruzgan.
“100 former Taliban have come over to our side in Chora in the past two months,” Gen Hamid said.
“We had three come in with weapons this week and many others are putting away their weapons.”
The key to any counter-insurgency operation is squeezing out the enemy so that they become irrelevant and after five years of hard work in Oruzgan that is now happening.
It has cost much in blood and treasure, but with 3000 Afghan National Army troops now trained up along with 1800 police and 2500 coalition forces, the Taliban is becoming irrelevant.
Major General Campbell said the biggest surge in Afghanistan during the past 12 months was the 80,000 fully trained ANA soldiers and police.
“That is an enduring surge,” he said.
As the debate in America, Britain and Australia focuses on draw downs and withdrawal dates, Campbell and his troops are focused on training the ANAs 4th Brigade so that it can secure the province.
The target date for that is 2014 and Major General Campbell has asked people to be patient, acknowledging the potential for more losses.
The timeframe is achievable.
He admits that the gains are fragile but regards that as another reason to stay the course.
Anything less would expose the provinces deep, isolated valleys to the re-emergence of the Taliban and a blood bath of reprisals.
The story is being repeated across the country and some seven provinces are almost ready to transition to local security control.
Australian special-forces are now fanning out into neighbouring provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to take the fight up to the bomb makers and commanders who run the deadly insurgency. And they are having great deal of success.
“Towns in Kandahar and Helmand provinces are now bustling with traders and entrepreneurs,” Maj-Gen Campbell said.
Such an outcome would have been inconceivable 12 months ago, but the gains could be reversed overnight if the political leaders of NATO and the Coalition lose their bottle and go home.
If that happened the country would soon fall back under the control of the Taliban and a disparate bunch of war lords, drug lords and other assorted bandits. It would once again be a training ground for Islamic militants hell bent on spreading violence and hate to places such as Bali, London, Madrid and elsewhere.
This is a high stakes campaign where comparisons to previous wars such as Vietnam are pointless and wrong.
Not one Australian was killed by a single terrorist trained in Vietnam, but 501 of our young people died in America’s fruitless war against the spread of communism.
More than 100 Australians have been killed by Islamic terrorists around the globe and so far 27 volunteer soldiers have died taking the fight up to this cowardly, fanatical enemy.
If we withdraw before the job is finished then the sacrifice of these 27 brave young Australians, including four this past week, and more than 170 more badly hurt and maimed would have been in vain and that would be a tragedy.
We honour the memory of the fallen by standing firm and to keep our country and our children safe we must persevere in Afghanistan - and that will involve further sacrifice.
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