UPDATE 9:38am: GREENS leader Bob Brown says a growing number of Australians want our troops out of Afghanistan after the death of another Aussie digger.
Pte Nathan Bewes has become the 17th Aussie Digger killed in the conflict and the sixth lost in the past month.
Senator Brown today offered his condolences to the family of Pte Bewes.
He said he shared a commitment to the brave defence forces in Afghanistan but said they should be brought home.
"It's a terrible war, these soldiers are there at the nation's behest and we think they should be brought safely back to Australia," Senator Brown told Channel 9.
"Because this war is not going the way it should, it was bungled from the outset by (former US) President (George W) Bush".
A growing majority of Australians thought troops should be brought home, Senator Brown said.
"We will go to the election fighting very strongly to have our troops brought safely home from Afghanistan," he said.
Three weeks ago Pte Bewes, from Brisbane, gave girlfriend of three years Alice Walsh a diamond ring while in Munich.
On leave from his second deployment in Afghanistan, it was to be "the ring before an engagement ring", but Pte Bewes, 23, a member of the First Mentoring Task Force, will never marry his sweetheart.
He was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in the Chora Valley in Oruzgan Province just before midnight on Friday - the 17th Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
"It was 5.30am when they (army officials) knocked on the door," Ms Walsh, 23, said.
"I just thought, please God let him just be injured. I just hoped it wasn't what it was".
Ms Walsh met Pte Bewes - her best friend and soul mate - through a fellow soldier and friend Pte Robert Murphy.
Pte Murphy, who is in Afghanistan, introduced Ms Walsh to his best mate three years ago and the couple instantly clicked.
"He was kind, generous and always up for a laugh. He would always help anybody who needed it," Ms Walsh said.
"He was the guy that everyone wanted to hang around with, a boys' boy, but he always made sure I was included".
In June, Ms Walsh flew to Europe to meet Pte Bewes, who was on leave after deploying on his second tour of Afghanistan in January.
They spent three weeks touring Switzerland, Munich and Berlin (Germany) and Prague.
While in Berlin, Pte Bewes took care of Ms Walsh, who had to have an operation after developing appendicitis.
"He wouldn't leave me. I had to tell him to go out and see things," she said.
"We had a blast in Europe ... in Munich he drank seven steins because he was so keen to go to all of the pubs his dad had been to when he was younger.
"But like any of them (soldiers) he wanted to be there for the boys. He always said, 'You go over as a team, you come back as a team'.
"He believed they were making a real difference".
Ms Walsh spoke to her beloved partner on Friday night, just hours before he was killed and another soldier was seriously wounded by an improvised explosive device.
They compiled a list of items Pte Bewes needed sent over to Afghanistan, including simple things such as toothpaste.
Pte Bewes' parents, Gary and Kay Bewes, and his sister, Stephanie, 25, who live in Murwillumbah in northern NSW, were still coming to terms with their loss yesterday.
Mr Bewes said his son had always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfathers, Cliff Gill, who served in New Guinea in World War II, and Jack Bewes, who served with the Royal Air Force in England.
"Nate went to school at Mt St Pats (in Murwillumbah) and joined the cadets when he was 13," Mr Bewes said.
"When he was 18, he joined the army in May 2005. He always wanted to follow in their footsteps".
Mr Bewes described his son as his "best mate".
"He was a great son, my only son and my best friend. He'd come home and we would have a beer together," he said.
Pte Reece "Red" Mellish, who served in Afghanistan with Pte Bewes, but was in Brisbane last week on leave, said the "all-round good bloke" would be greatly missed by everyone who knew him.
News of Pte Bewes' death - the sixth in just over a month - came as family, friends and dignitaries, including Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston and Prime Minister Julia Gillard, were in Darwin for the funeral of Pte Scott Palmer, one of three soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on June 21.
Prime Minister Gillard said the latest loss increased the determination of the soldiers serving in Afghanistan to get the job done.
"There will be Australians today who are asking themselves in the face of this loss why as a country do we continue to pursue our mission there," she said.
"We pursue that mission because Afghanistan is a safe haven for terrorists".
The injured soldier, who was in the same patrol as Pte Bewes, was taken to Tarin Kowt where he remains in a satisfactory condition.
In addition to the 17 deaths in Afghanistan, 143 Australian soldiers have been wounded, including 43 this year.
The Victorian families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan yesterday called for Australians to back the controversial mission despite the nation mourning the latest loss.
Melbourne mum Jennifer Ward, whose son Benjamin Ranaudo was killed on July 18 last year after stepping on an IED, called on Australians to boost their support for our soldiers.
