Houston Chronicle: Australia Wants Its Troops Out Of Iraq

[Hissyspit]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4387894.html

Dec. 8, 2006, 1:22AM
Australia wants its troops out of Iraq

The Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia — Prime Minister John Howard, responding to the Iraq Study Group report, said Friday he would like to see Australian troops out of Iraq but refused to set a deadline for their withdrawal.

Howard's comments echoed those of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who also have given the group's proposals a chilly reception.

"Everybody would like to be out as soon as possible. We all know it is going badly," Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting. But I am not going to make myself in any way hostage to a particular date."

Howard's conservative government has remained an unflagging U.S. ally in Iraq, despite widespread opposition to the war at home. Autralia has around 1,320 troops in and around Iraq, mostly guarding Australian diplomats in Baghdad and training Iraqi forces in two southern provinces.

- snip -

The prime minister conceded the situation in Iraq was getting worse but repeated his oft-stated position that Australian forces must remain in Iraq for as long as they are needed.

[Missy M]

1. It makes me so angry hearing the words coming out of the mouths..

of Bush, Blair and now John Howard "we all know it is going badly". We went through the incompetent Bush strutting around in his jet pilot costume declaring "Mission Accomplished" to, we have to look at the "good things happening in Iraq" to, we are going to "stay the course" to, "we know it's going badly". Three years later, hundreds of thousands of deaths, a country totally decimated, a civil war and the new words out of the fearless leaders mouth's are "we know it's going badly". It makes me wonder how we still allow this bunch of incompetent failures to keep going.

[neoblues]

2. An an alogy

"Everybody would like to be out as soon as possible stop running up bills on their credit cards. We all know it is going badly we are going into debt, but I am not going to make myself in any way hostage to a particular date deciding to stop spending excessively."

What I mean is... that Bush, Howard and other's logic is rather like someone addicted to overspending on their credit cards; they won't stop and they'll keep running up their balances until they're forced to stop--meanwhile, they reject the idea of "just stopping" or "stopping by a specific date". All they have to do is stop. Easier said than done, but it's the only way; refusing to make a decision and just claiming they want to stop and understand that everybody "wants to stop" does nothing.

Of course, the most effective answer is to cut up the offending spender's credit cards. Alas, that would be the equivalent of having countries dismantle their expeditionary or offensive military capabilities (thus preventing their misuse); alas, in the real world, every country would have to do the same thing at the same time.

[Poll_Blind]

3. We still have marshalls from the Cook Islands or is that cooks from...

...the Marshall Islands? Either way, I can't wait for the commemorative "Coalition of the Willing" coins to come out, with the coalition members on the coins for each year. They start at quarter-sized and wind up penny-sized.

PB

[jannyk]

4. A friend of mine

has a parody set of the '3 wise monkeys' - hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.

In his set one monkey covers his eyes, one covers his ears and the third covers his arse. He has tagged them Bush, Blair and Howard.

Howard has parroted everything Bush has said since the beginning. It was a power play, craving world recognition - boy did he back the wrong horse :dunce:

[leesa]

5. Howard was just saying a few weeks ago that he wanted to stay there forever

until that mythical 'job was done'...whatever happened, John? Have we broken up?