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Sunday May 19, 2013

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Journalist Andrew Rule reports back from Afghanistan

Posted by: Michael James | 27 November, 2012 - 10:45 AM
Afghanistan

Herald Sun Journalist Andew Rule has been on assignment in Afghanistan and joined Neil Mitchell from the war-torn country to detail some of his experiences.

LISTEN BELOW: Andrew Rule

Rule says the danger the diggers face is constantly evident but it really hit home before they embarked on a cross country trip from the Kabul main base to an artillery range along a road referred to as Highway 7.

"Before we left a senior intelligence officer gave us a briefing saying 'Look we've had some warnings that there are going to be some incidents this weekend. It’s a holy day, they are trying to make a point and we think they are going to use kids',”

“What he means is, if we were perhaps held up in the traffic, we would have to be aware of the thought that a child with a bomb strapped to them would walk out and blow themselves up" Rule told Neil Mitchell.

Rule says that of the troops he has met their is a common and constant belief that the Australian presence in Afghanistan is achieving positive results.

"One young bloke who is about 30, who has children of his own back in Australia, he said to me that it’s a 15-year project,"

"'We have to get to the children who are growing up here, and we have to prove to them that we are not bad people, and that there is a different way of life',"

"'If we can get all those kids realising that there is a different way and not to treat us with suspicion and not to hate infidels then we will have done our job', and he believes that they are getting to that" Rule told Neil Mitchell.

LISTEN HERE: Andrew Rule speaks with Neil Mitchell from Kabul

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Blog comments Your Say

  • I don't like it when journalists go there thinking they're going to get the full picture when in fact they are simply getting the picture that the military wants to give them. That's not independent journalism.

    jason Tuesday 27 November, 2012 - 2:40 PM

  • What a stinking dump this joint is.
    I realise the Taliban has to be eliminated from there, but I should hate to have a member of my family over there.

    Faye Tuesday 27 November, 2012 - 12:16 PM

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