'Unpleasant Whiff of Politics' Seen in Afghan Pullout HONG KONG - A general who once commanded Australian forces in Afghanistan said the decision by Australia and leading NATO countries to speed up the pullout of their troops from the Afghan theater carries "an unpleasant whiff of politics and self-interest." "We're pulling our troops out for political reasons, not for military purposes," Maj. Gen. John P. Cantwell said in a commentary in the Australian newspaper The Age. "The electoral cycles of nations contributing troops to the fight in Afghanistan mean that politicians everywhere are looking for the exits," said General Cantwell, who retired in February after 38 years in the army. Barack Obama wants to lock in a firm plan for the withdrawal before the U.S. presidential elections late this year. "British Prime Minister David Cameron is also clearing the decks," he added, "proposing deep cuts to troop numbers in 2013." Under the new schedule announced Tuesday by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the bulk of Australia's troops would be home before the end of 2013, and possibly before federal elections, which must be held by Nov. 30 of next year, as my colleague Matt Siegel writes from Hobart, Australia. "This is a war with a purpose," Ms. Gillard said. This is a war with an end. We have a strategy, a mission and a timeframe for achieving it. We are serving our national interest in Afghanistan. Ms. Gillard said she expected her timetable to be approved at a NATO summit meeting in Chicago next month. Australia has 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, almost all of them in Oruzgan Province. The contingent of Diggers, as the soldiers are known, is the largest non-NATO force in Afghanistan. "Essentially we're working toward a political deadline rather than a strategic, tactical deadline," said Dylan Welch, security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald. Ms. Gillard's opponents suggested a faster withdrawal of troops was intended to marshal pre-election support for her struggling Labor Party. "It would be a shameful thing if, after nearly 12 years of deployment in Afghanistan and the loss of more than 30 Australian lives, this mission was foreshortened for reasons of domestic political convenience for the Labor Party rather than on the basis of the advice of the military commanders in the field," said George Brandis, an opposition senator, in an interview on ABC News. Andrew Wilkie, an independent member of Parliament and a former lieutenant colonel in the Australian Army, said it was "a shocking prospect to think that your son or daughter might have died in vain," although he said the army had performed admirably in Oruzgan. "Unfortunately, though, the war is lost," Mr. Wilkie said. It's just holding the line until we can get out of there, and that's hard for people, and the problem we've got right now is a lack of backbone from politicians who are prepared to say it as it is. An editorial in The Newcastle Herald said the war had cost Australia "more than $7 billion and 32 lives - a hefty expense in blood and money for a relatively small player in the campaign." "Afghanistan has never been a popular war among Australians, many of whom have struggled to see in the involvement any cogent purpose other than honoring the familiar obligations of the U.S. alliance," the editorial said. General Cantwell, who commanded Australian forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan in 2010, said the Diggers had made good progress in calming Oruzgan while training and backing up Afghan forces, although he noted, "It takes many years to grow genuinely competent armed forces and the Afghans have a long way to go." "As they take the lead more often, it is inevitable that things will go wrong sometimes, perhaps badly," the general said. Australian mentors will have a vital role to play right up to the day they leave.