(Aussies should) Withdraw from Middle East

[struggle4progress]

10 March 2008 - 9:23AM
By RAY WILLIAMS

PRIME Minister Rudd will visit America soon to lunch with President Bush and among the issues certain to be discussed will be Australian troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. It could be a good time to talk about withdrawing our troops from both arenas ...

Mr Rudd, a former diplomat, is aware that not having enemies is the best form of defence and was in Papua New Guinea in the past few days week trying to patch up relationships that have deteriorated in the past few years when Mr Howard showed much more interest in the Middle East than he did about our own neighbourhood.

We have the opportunity to create better friends in our region and of diffusing problems before they start, if we do it the right way, and that doesn't mean a jackboots approach. We must avoid any suggestion we want to intrude on our neighbours but that we want to help them in, say, improving their health, education and economic prospects.

We could offer help in developing better education, improved health services and even boosting their economies, possibly by establishing factories to make the goods we now import from more distant countries ...

http://goulburn.yourguide.com.au/news/local/opinion/withdraw-from-middle-east/1199238.html