Australia now cites US alliance as a key reason for joining Iraq war

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040302/wl_afp/australia_iraq&cid=1512&ncid=1473

SYDNEY, (AFP) - A day after being accused by a parliamentary panel of exaggerating the case for joining the Iraq (news - web sites) war, the Australian government changed its emphasis by citing its alliance with the United States as a crucial factor in the decision.


Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer both stressed the importance of the alliance in the decision to commit 2,000 Australian troops to the US-led conflict.


Both before and after the war, Howard and his ministers repeatedly cited Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as the principal justification for joining President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s "coalition of the willing."


But Howard said Tuesday that in all his public addresses arguing the case for joining the US-led invasion, he had "placed very heavy reliance on the importance of the American alliance."

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[rooboy]

1. Sure, if your best friend gets into organized crime...

who are you to say no??

Jeeeeeeezus!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

2. Not quite bombast we heard from them before, is it?

But, but, but.......

From the article:

Downer said if it had not joined the US-led invasion and ditched the alliance, Australia would have been left "very vulnerable and very open" at a crucial time.


"There's no question that was an issue and to have walked away from the Americans on an issue where we thought they were right anyway would have been a curious thing to do and would have weakened our alliance," he said.
(snip)

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[dbt]

3. America used to be trustworthy.

Back before we got into the War-For-Profit business, we stood for a few decent things; you could trust us.

In the same vein (vain?), it used to be quite safe to rally behind the president in times of national crisis.

That was all before our Head of State became the Enemy of the State.

Follow us to Hell, Australia...

:freak:
dbt

[truthspeaker]

4. Which begs the question

If the United States jumped off a cliff, would Australia jump too?

[Briar]

5. It just did...

...and so did Bliar.

[truthspeaker]

6. Blair would not only jump off the cliff,

he would continue claiming it was the right decision even as he lay on the ground with 40 broken bones.