Peter Dutton says Australians should be proud of the service in Afghanistan
Peter Dutton says Australians should be proud of the service of Australian troops in Afghanistan after two decades in the country.
The Defence Minister said there were “disturbing and confronting” images coming out of Kabul as the Taliban gained control of the city.
“There are still some Australians there who have been involved in NGO work or involved as contractors in the country, and really if they are there now, they have made a decision they have wanted to stay,” he told Scott Emerson.
“Many of those NGO’s will have their own extraction plans that they have either executed or will do.
“Australian citizens are our priority.”
He said there were 39,000 Australians who have served in Afghanistan, 41 who died.
“The work they have done, the way in which they have influenced in Afghanistan over that 20 year period, has directly resulted in Australian lives being saved.”
He said Australians should be grateful to the service of the ADF in Afghanistan.
“We should be incredibly proud of the influence we have had there, there would have been, with absolute certainty, terrorist attacks in Australia of a significant scale without the efforts of those men and women in the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan.
“Every Australian should be proud of their service, and every Australian should refute this claim that somehow this conflict was for nothing.
“We would have lost people in our country through terrorist attacks but for the efforts of those Defence Force personnel who served in our country.”
Press PLAY to hear more about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan
Image: Sam Mooy/Getty Images
‘There was never a good time’: US President doubles down on Afghanistan withdrawal