You might not want to hear this..........but it was just for looks.
BUT what Australian Soldiers are you speaking of????
As of May 2009
no Australian Soldiers, but one air crew and two trainers have been killed in combat in Iraq,
http://defence.gov.au/opEx/global/index.htm
now ask yourself how is it that the biggest and LONGEST war since WWII hasn't lost ANY Australian Soldiers.....
...because the troops you did send were stationed far from battle so there be no politically backwash.
you were not needed...
....and if Australia is ever
NEEDED....its to late for all of us
i was thinking about afghanistan
http://www.adf.australianwarheroes.com/
The Australian Online - Sunday 20th February 2011 - Another Australian soldier has been killed in an attack by insurgents in Afghanistan. Defence force chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said 21-year-old combat engineer Jamie Larcombe was killed when his patrol came under fire in rugged terrain overnight.
ABC Online - Thursday 3rd February 2011: An Australian soldier has been killed and another seriously wounded by an improvised bomb in Afghanistan, the Defence Force has announced. Defence named the dead soldier as Corporal Richard Edward Atkinson, 22, of the Darwin-based 1st Combat Engineer Regiment. The soldiers, who were serving with Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force 2, were on a foot patrol with the Afghan National Army in the Tangi Valley in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.
Sydney Morning Herald - Wednesday 25th August 2010: The latest Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan has been named as father-of-one Jared MacKinney. Lance Corporal MacKinney died in a firefight while on patrol. Lance Corporal MacKinney is the 21st Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan. Defence Force chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said the 28-year-old lance corporal was from the Brisbane-based 6 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment.
ABC Online - Saturday 21st August 2010: Private Grant Kirby, 35, and Private Thomas Dale, 21, were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off while they were overseeing an Afghan army patrol in the Baluchi Valley. The men, attached to the 1st Mentoring Taskforce, were outside their Bushmaster armoured vehicle at the time of the blast. Two other soldiers, who were inside the vehicle, were wounded. The incident occurred on Friday at 10:30am (local time).
Sydney Morning Herald - Saturday 14th August 2010: An Australian special forces soldier has been killed in a clash with insurgents, taking the Afghanistan death toll to 18 since 2001 and seven so far this year alone. Trooper Jason Thomas Brown, 29, a member of the the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), died from multiple gunshot wounds when insurgents opened fire on his patrol.
ABC News - Saturday 10th July 2010: Private Nathan Bewes from the Brisbane based 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while on foot patrol with a colleague in the Chora Valley region of Uruzgan Province. He is the 17th Australian to be killed in Afghanistan.
Report from THE AGE newspaper online 21st June 2010: Three Australian soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, just a fortnight after two other diggers died in a roadside bomb blast in the war torn country. Ten were on board the chopper, Defence Chief Air Marshal Angus Houston told reporters. The soldiers are attached to the Special Operations Task Group and there are "a number of casualties", the department said in a statement.
Private Ben Chuck, Private Timothy Aplin, and Private Scott Palmer, were killed when the helicopter they were on crashed on its way to a mission south of the Australian base at Tarin Kowt. They were part of the Special Operations Task Group drawn from the Sydney-based 2nd Commando Regiment. The three commandos had been to Afghanistan on previous tours. Seven other Australian soldiers were injured in the crash and two remain in intensive care. The deaths bring Australia's casualty toll in Afghanistan to16 since 2001.
News from Associated Press 8th June 2010 - Two Australian soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in southern Afghanistan, the worst fatalities the country has suffered in a single day during military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, an official said Tuesday. The men were among a total of 10 International Security Assistance Force troops, including seven Americans, killed in separate attacks on Monday on the deadliest day of the year for foreign forces in Afghanistan. A U.S. civilian contractor who trains Afghan police also died in a brazen suicide assault. It was the first multiple fatalities Australia has suffered in a day in either Afghanistan or Iraq, Acting Defense Force Chief Lt. Gen. David Hurley told reporters in the capital Canberra.
Combat engineers Darren Smith and Jacob Moerland died after their foot patrol was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) as they returned to base in the Mirabad Valley region of Uruzgan province.
granted...not even close to the death of american soldiers, but a life lost is still a life lost, and to be honest, iraq didn't even come to mind because when i hear of the death of an australian soldier, i hear afghanistan . i found an article which i found very interesting about australian soldier's involvement with the war in iraq.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4016186.ece
