http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/jim-molan/ Major-General Andrew James (Jim) Molan was the Coalition’s chief of operations in Iraq in 2004-05, and spent 40 years in the Australian Defence Force. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/afghanistan-it-is-the-manner-of-our-leaving-that-matters/ The recent string of casualties inflicted on Australian trainers by their Afghan students is part of the ongoing tragedy of war. It is also not making the job of selling the Afghan War to the Australian population any easier. A recent Roy Morgan poll says that 72 per cent of Australians want to withdraw the troops. That’s good because we are, of course, going to withdraw and our casualties must be seen in that context. The withdrawal date is already set as 2014 and barring some strategic change, our combat troops will leave. The Prime Minister has announced that there will be an ongoing training commitment to Afghanistan, but the detail is unclear. Of course, if there were no consequences for the withdrawal of our troops, they would have been withdrawn long ago. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Jim Molan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/afghanistan-it-is-the-manner-of-our-leaving-that-matters/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/afghanistan-it-is-the-manner-of-our-leaving-that-matters/#item7115 Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:55:48 +0000 Jim Molan | Author bios | The Punch