Operations By Australian Forces
Planning for the deployment of ADF units to the Middle East began in mid 2002 when Australian officers were attached to United States planning teams. This was before the Government's announcement that Australia would join the United States and British buildup, but was conducted as contingency planning which did not imply a commitment to war.
In keeping with its relatively small size, the Australian force made an important though limited contribution to Coalition operations during the invasion of Iraq. The Australian contribution was also geographically dispersed, with the Australian forces forming part of larger US and British units rather than a concentrated Australian unit. No Australian personnel were killed or taken prisoner during the war.
Brigadier Maurie McNarn on 21 March 2003, was the first Coalition or US combatant commander to hold an official press conference with the international media in Qatar. Australian contributions at the time were widely quoted owing to the lack of official operational news from other participants.
Read more about this topic: Australian Contribution To The 2003 Invasion Of Iraq
Famous quotes containing the words operations, australian and/or forces:
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“The Australian mind, I can state with authority, is easily boggled.”
—Charles Osborne (b. 1927)
“If in the opinion of the Tsars authors were to be the servants of the state, in the opinion of the radical critics writers were to be the servants of the masses. The two lines of thought were bound to meet and join forces when at last, in our times, a new kind of regime the synthesis of a Hegelian triad, combined the idea of the masses with the idea of the state.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)