Australian PM "Pulls A Bush"

[Prime Time Andrew Doyle 0]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister John Howard, emulating his friend US President George W Bush, made a secret visit to Iraq to join Australian troops in the national Anzac Day commemoration of his country's war dead.

 

The Sunday visit, which for security reasons was kept secret until he landed before dawn at Baghdad airport with a planeload of journalists, was his first to the country since he committed troops to the US-led invasion last March.

 

He attended a dawn service at Baghdad airport, where the control tower is staffed largely by Australian air traffic controllers, and spent some time talking to troops, diplomats and other civilian expatriates.

 

Most of the troops gathered for the service knew there would be a VIP guest, but were not told who it would be.

 

Australia, which committed 2,000 troops to the invasion last March, currently has some 850 still serving in Iraq. They include soldiers protecting Australia's expatriate community or instructing Iraqi service volunteers, as well as air force air traffic controllers and naval crews in the Gulf.

 

Australia's main opposition party has pledged to withdraw troops from Iraq by Christmas, saying the forces were not central to the peacekeeping effort in the country.

 

National elections are due late this year and Labor is leading the conservative government in opinion polls.

 

But Howard, a strong supporter of the US-led invasion, remains staunchly committed to keeping Australian military personnel in the country.

 

Howard said last week that Australia had not been asked to send more troops and was not planning to do so, but stopped short of ruling out reinforcing its contingent.

 

He told reporters aboard his flight that Australia's commitment in Iraq would be funded until at least June 30, 2005 and said they would not be withdrawn soon.

 

Howard's visit mirrored a similar trip to Iraq under a cloak of secrecy by Bush for Thanksgiving Day last November.

 

To maintain security, Howard had been listed to appear at the Anzac Day ceremony in Canberra until Sunday morning, when Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson arrived as a last-minute replacement.

 

Howard, who was accompanied by assistant defence minister Mal Brough and Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove, said in a statement that his trip was his way of recognising the efforts of Australia's military personnel.

 

The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported that Howard thanked the forces personnel for their service to their country and to Iraq in what he said was a just cause.

 

"You are seeking to bring to the people of Iraq who have suffered so much for so long, the hope of liberty and the hope of freedom, and your example, your behaviour, your values, belong to that great and long tradition that was forged on the beaches of Gallipoli in 1915," he said.

 

Australian Defence Association head Neil James said Howard's visit would be a boost for troop morale.

 

"I think it will give them quite a good boost for the simple reason that he's the man who sent them there and it's always good to get a visit from the boss," James told Sky News.

 

Anzac Day commemorates the day in 1915 when men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed with British forces on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula in a bid to bid to knock Turkey out of World War I.

 

The campaign bogged down in a disastrous eight-month battle that ended in defeat and withdrawal of the allied forces.

 

Some 10,000 ANZAC troops were killed in action, nearly a quarter of the allied total, while many died of disease and privation. Turkey lost 87,000 troops killed.

 

credit: Yahoo.com.au

 

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Personaly, I think good on him. Even though some people will see it as a ploy to get votes for the election this year, I think that it was good of him to go visit our troops on a day where we remember our past service men and woman, and let them know that we support them.

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

Yeah, good on him. John Howard's done a lot for this beautiful country of ours.

 

But it doesn't change the fact that here at home, we've got our own, a bespectacled balding knome,

He thinks he's rough, but he's as tough,

As a freshly-baked cream puff,

Howard says that he's all class,

But it's hard for him to talk, with his tongue on Bush's ass...

 

Thank you, Scared Weird Little Guys.

 

I'm out.

[tommytomlin 0]

So Latham uses some things from a Clinton speech and gets attacked by the Liberals, but then Howard goes and steals directly from Bush's playbook! And now he's trying to outlaw gay marriage!

 

Like, what's he going to do next? Run campaign ads against John Kerry?

[Guest Nanks]

Why does visiting the troops in Iraq on Australia's designated day that recognises our armed forces have to be "stealing from Bush"??? What call would Howard have gone before now?? Bush went for Thanksgiving, it's an important US day. Would Howard NOT going have been somehow better??

 

On the whole gnome thing, by the way, have you actually met him?? He's not that short.

[spiny norman 0]

I think the point is that at any possible moment, Howard manages to find an opportunity to wrap himself in the flag. Every sporting event that will receive a large audience, he is there (such as the time he congratulated Kieran Perkins and "Trent Hackett" for their swimming). When the Governor General was being faced by the rape scandal, suddenly the boat people are throwing children overboard (later found to be untrue, they fell in). Every time Howard's government is going to be facing negative publicity, some new story is discovered to show him in a positive light. Right now Latham is getting more publicity than Howard and his popularity is soaring. Obviously Howard is trying to make the pubic opinion sway back in his favour.

[Guest Nanks]

So no danger at all that given he's behind the whole troops in Iraq thing he felt it appropriate to go over there on ANZAC Day?? Of course not, he could never actually do something good, like pull the economy out of the shithole it was in.... It's well documented Howard's a sports nut by the way, you don't have to be good at sport to love it. Should he stay away from all sporting events so people don't think he's just trying to grab attention??

 

Latham can get as popular as he bloody wants. If the fucking morons of this country want to elect him to office, go for it, I'll be in Canada avoiding another fucking recession.

[tommytomlin 0]

You do know when John Howard was treasurer, Australia experienced some of its highest rates of unemployment and inflation in years?

 

And you do know that the economic reform undertaken by the Hawke and Keating Labor Government was the most successful in Australian history? And that the high interest rates and the 'recession we had to have' were experienced in all of the other major economic regions during the 1990's?

 

I get so sick of Liberal voters saying that Labor = economic incompetence, when it has consistently been Labor Governments that have reformed Australia's economy into what it is today. I don't discount the efforts of Howard and Costello, but they're not the magical architects of Australia's current economic condition that they claim to be. Just look at our current account deficit.

 

 

And jokes about Bansai Howard aside, I thought it was a great thing that he visited the troops. It was a great gesture, but if you think for one second that it wasn't politically motivated, then you're a fool. If it was a completely noble act from the bottom of his heart, he wouldn't have invited the media. Simple as that.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

So no danger at all that given he's behind the whole troops in Iraq thing he felt it appropriate to go over there on ANZAC Day?? Of course not, he could never actually do something good, like pull the economy out of the shithole it was in.... It's well documented Howard's a sports nut by the way, you don't have to be good at sport to love it. Should he stay away from all sporting events so people don't think he's just trying to grab attention??

 

Latham can get as popular as he bloody wants. If the fucking morons of this country want to elect him to office, go for it, I'll be in Canada avoiding another fucking recession.

heh. boy will you be dissapointed when you get here...

[DARRYLXWF 0]

You do know when John Howard was treasurer, Australia experienced some of its highest rates of unemployment and inflation in years?

 

That had more to do with industrial relations and Fraser not being strong enough to deal with it. Maybe if Howard was PM back then, he'd have been a bit stronger.

[spiny norman 0]

Fraser was a far better PM than Howard ever can be. Yes, he pulled us out of an economic slump, but it was a slump which occurred while under his leadership anyway. Petrol prices have gone up by at least 10 cents everywhere from the beginning of his leading the country. He brought in the GST despite everybody opposing it at the time. The health insurance fiasco similarly earned the disdain of the population. The only thing that I find more disturbing than Howard as PM is the fact that he has made so many changes in the country which people hated and yet they haven't voted him out. While Crean wasn't ever a real threat as Opposition Leader, Beazley was and could have been a much better change. Thank God I think Latham can actually be elected in and fix this mess of a country.

[DARRYLXWF 0]

Petrol prices have gone up by at least 10 cents everywhere from the beginning of his leading the country

 

Yeah, due to the trend in world oil prices. It would have happened regardless of what government was leading the country.

 

He brought in the GST despite everybody opposing it at the time

 

C'mon, he went to an ELECTION with the GST and WON.

 

The only thing that I find more disturbing than Howard as PM is the fact that he has made so many changes in the country which people hated and yet they haven't voted him out.

 

Here's something to sleep on. Maybe the people don't hate Howard as much you would like them to. The polls certainly don't show this hatred. Where's your evidence?

[Guest Nanks]

So no danger at all that given he's behind the whole troops in Iraq thing he felt it appropriate to go over there on ANZAC Day??  Of course not, he could never actually do something good, like pull the economy out of the shithole it was in....  It's well documented Howard's a sports nut by the way, you don't have to be good at sport to love it.  Should he stay away from all sporting events so people don't think he's just trying to grab attention??

 

Latham can get as popular as he bloody wants.  If the fucking morons of this country want to elect him to office, go for it, I'll be in Canada avoiding another fucking recession.

heh. boy will you be dissapointed when you get here...

Nah I won't, I just got back from spending 4 months in B.C. I love Canada.

 

We really don't need to get into particulars regarding "blaming" certain governments for economic success and failures, as in general it can be very difficult to properly ascertain which parts of the economy which government was responsible for as all things in economics experience varying extents of "lag effect".

 

However, suggesting that the majority of people opposed the GST when he made it the basis for his election and still got up against the person who you claim to have been a real threat.

 

What will happen if Labour gets up is all the power will flood back to the unions again and big businesses will be fucked. That will, in turn, badly affect economic activity, and hey, there's another recession.

[tommytomlin 0]

What will happen if Labour gets up is all the power will flood back to the unions again and big businesses will be fucked. That will, in turn, badly affect economic activity, and hey, there's another recession.

Yes, that's exactly what will happen. What a comprehensively researched scenario based entirely in fact. I am astounded.

 

You've been listening to Tony Abbott in Question Time too much.