Bush's comments against troop withdrawal plan ignites storm in Australia
By ROD MCGUIRK
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australian media expressed shock Friday over U.S. President George W. Bush's condemnation of an opposition party's plan to pull Australia's troops out of Iraq if it wins elections.
National broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp. called Bush's remarks a "verbal belting." The Australian Associated Press news agency called it a "blistering attack." Standing next to Prime Minister John Howard after the pair held talks in Washington early Thursday, Bush said it would be "a disastrous decision for the leader of a great country like Australia to say, 'We are pulling out."'
Labour leader Mark Latham earlier this year announced a plan to bring home the 850 Australian troops serving in and around Iraq if Labour wins elections due by year's end. Howard has compared Latham to Spain's new socialist leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who won office after the Madrid train bombings. Zapatero had vowed to withdraw Spanish forces from Iraq if he won.
Latham on Friday didn't back down from his stance - but neither did he counterattack Bush, whom he's previously described as "flaky," "dangerous" and "incompetent."
"Labour never wanted the troops there in the first place. We intend to have them home by Christmas," Latham said in a statement.
"I look forward to the day when we can put the mistakes of Iraq behind us and a Labour government can work with the United States to further strengthen the intelligence, strategic and cultural relationships between our two countries," Latham said.
Political analysts said Bush's attack could politically damage Howard, who has made his government's strong security and trade ties with Washington a centrepiece of his foreign policy.
"The pro-American sentiment is not as strong and the behaviour of the United States since the Iraq war started and the catalogue of failures would make it very risky for Howard to make the American alliance an election issue," said Australian National University political scientist John Hart.
Gerard Henderson, a former Howard adviser in the 1980s and now head of the independent Sydney Institute think-tank, said Bush shouldn't have waded into Australia's domestic politics.
Henderson, who supported the Iraq war, said he did not believe the war will figure as a large issue at the Australian election due this year.
"I think it's better that the political debate within Australia is left to Australians," Henderson said. "I don't know that criticism from overseas helps the cause."
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