Our Allies and Iraq:Australia and Germany are telling cases

Our allies and Iraq: Australia and Germany are telling cases
Manchester Union Leader ^| October 18, 2004 | Editorial


AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister John Howard won re-election two Saturdays ago, and the American media hardly noticed. That is not surprising, considering that Howardâ??s victory undermined John Kerryâ??s assertion that President Bush is alienating Americaâ??s allies.

Howardâ??s challenger had pledged to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq. He lost. The Australian people chose Howard, who had pledged to continue his countryâ??s involvement in the war. After his re-election, Howard praised President Bush, saying, â??I respect him very much both as an individual and as a very strong leader. I think the strength of his stand against terrorism has been very important. In politics that is very important, because often people will vote for you because they respect the strength and consistency of your view even though on a given issue they may not agree with you.â?�

Kerry likes to pretend that the only reason some nations refused to support the war in Iraq was because of President Bush. But when France, Germany, Russia and China opposed the war, they did so because they had complex economic and military ties to Saddam Hussein. France refused to send troops to Iraq, but later joined the United States in the peacekeeping effort in Haiti this year â?? showing that France was opposed to toppling Saddam, not to aligning with President Bush.

Just last week Germany announced: â??There will be no German soldiers in Iraq. . . The position of the German government as far as Iraq is concerned is clear â?? it will not be changed.â?� So much for the idea that Old Europe would gladly ease Americaâ??s burden in Iraq if only we had a President who spoke French and asked them really, really nicely.

dude, howard won because we are a cosy nation of gamblers and home owners.
everyone here has a mortgage and they went the "stable economy" line.
2 days later the treasurer is furrowing his brow at the oil prices and the impact that will ahve on his ability to honour election promises. again they say "it was the based o the best intelligence we had at the time"
also the labour party sided with greens for preference votes which turned off the conservatives due to drug harm minimisation inititives.
so at the end of the day, cost of living will rise regardless and the war rages on.
oh and now they are free to dismantle medicare.
oh and sell of telstra the state owned telco screwing rural services again
oh and give big buisness their way over the worker.
labour ran a piss weak campain based on the family values of simple aussie workers.
liberals won by spending 6 billion dollrs on another scare/smear campain. they had a buget surplus by not spending it on fiixing hospitals and employing people.
will make it even funnier if kerry wins
and even scarier if he dont.