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Aussie PM fires shots on Democrat Obama over Iraq
Sheldon Alberts, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, February 12, 2007
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A leading international ally of George W. Bush on Sunday said the election of Democratic Senator Barack Obama as the next American president would mean a "victory for the terrorists" and leave the Middle East in chaos.
In a rare intervention by a foreign leader into U.S. domestic politics, Australian Prime Minister John Howard ridiculed a proposal by Obama to completely withdraw American troops from Iraq over the next 13 months.
Howard's unexpected criticism of Obama - an underdog candidate to win his party's presidential nomination - stunned Democrats even as U.S. conservatives joined the attack on the Illinois senator's dovish foreign policy views.
"If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats," Howard told an Australian broadcaster.
The Australian leader's remarks followed on the heels of Obama's weekend rally here to kick off his 2008 presidential campaign. The 45-year-old, a relative political novice elected to the Senate just two years ago, told supporters the U.S. should remove all American combat troops from Iraq by next March. Obama's proposed timetable is one of the most aggressive presented by any Democrat, including Senator Hillary Clinton, a competitor for the party's nomination.
At his campaign announcement, Obama said "it's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreements in the lives and heart of someone else's civil war."
Australia has been part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 and still has 1,400 troops deployed in the country, mostly in non-combat roles.
"If everybody goes, Iraq will descend into total civil war and there'll be a lot of bloodshed," Howard said. "I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory."
Obama brushed off the political attack, saying he finds it "flattering" to be criticized by such a prominent Bush supporter.
"If he's ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq I would suggest that he call up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq," he said during a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa. "Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."
After Howard's remarks were publicized Sunday, U.S. Democrats told Howard to butt out of American politics.
"It is bizarre," said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. "You know, we'll make our own judgments in this country with respect to elections."
But Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican presidential hopeful, said Howard had "earned a right to comment on the world stage about their partner in this endeavour, because they have been fighting side by side with us in Iraq."
Howard's remarks, however impolitic, highlight one of the perceived weaknesses in Obama's candidacy - his lack of foreign policy experience.
Leading U.S. conservatives cast Obama on Sunday as a pacifist who is not up to the job of protecting America in the war on terror. William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, said Obama's apparent decision "to run as a dovish candidate" would be a boon to Clinton, who has so far refused to propose a timetable for troop withdrawal.
"Hillary Clinton will stay more hawkish than (Obama), and I do think that's good for Hillary Clinton," Kristol said on Fox News Sunday.
An estimated 15,000 supporters braved frigid winter conditions at the Old State Capitol in Springfield on Saturday to hear Obama formally enter the 2008 presidential race.
The choice of the Illinois capital as the starting point for the campaign was highly symbolic. The city was home to Abraham Lincoln and the site of his 1858 anti-slavery speech, in which he told Americans "a house divided against itself cannot stand."
Obama, who also got his political start in Illinois state politics, said Lincoln's efforts to unite the country before the Civil War could be a lesson to contemporary American leaders.
"Politics doesn't have to divide us on this anymore," he said.
Obama, who trails Clinton in polls of U.S. Democrats, highlighted his opposition to the war during campaign stops Sunday in Iowa and Chicago.
Even though Clinton has said the U.S. should start redeploying troops, it is "not clear" how and when she would begin the withdrawal, Obama told reporters.
Alluding to Clinton's Senate vote in 2002 authorizing Bush to go to war, Obama said: "Even at the time, it was possible to make judgments that this would not work out well."
In an interview broadcast Sunday night on CBS' 60 Minutes, Obama said he did not believe the issue of race would be a deciding factor in whether he wins the Democratic nomination.
"If I don't win this race it will be because of other factors - (that) I have not shown to the American people, a vision for where the country needs to go - that they can embrace," he said.
Obama's father was a black Kenyan immigrant and his mother a white woman from Kansas.
Some African-American pundits and authors have even suggested Obama is not "black enough" to represent them on traditional civil-rights issues. {Good Grief
}
Obama, who struggled with his racial identity as a young man, dismissed the debate about his African-American credentials as ridiculous.
"If you look African-American in this society, you're treated as an African-American," he told CBS. "It's interesting though, that now I feel very comfortable and confident in terms of who I am and where I stake my ground. But I notice that a I've become a focal point for a racial debate."
© CanWest News Service 2007
Aussie PM fires shots on Democrat Obama over Iraq
Sheldon Alberts, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, February 12, 2007
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A leading international ally of George W. Bush on Sunday said the election of Democratic Senator Barack Obama as the next American president would mean a "victory for the terrorists" and leave the Middle East in chaos.
In a rare intervention by a foreign leader into U.S. domestic politics, Australian Prime Minister John Howard ridiculed a proposal by Obama to completely withdraw American troops from Iraq over the next 13 months.
Howard's unexpected criticism of Obama - an underdog candidate to win his party's presidential nomination - stunned Democrats even as U.S. conservatives joined the attack on the Illinois senator's dovish foreign policy views.
"If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats," Howard told an Australian broadcaster.
The Australian leader's remarks followed on the heels of Obama's weekend rally here to kick off his 2008 presidential campaign. The 45-year-old, a relative political novice elected to the Senate just two years ago, told supporters the U.S. should remove all American combat troops from Iraq by next March. Obama's proposed timetable is one of the most aggressive presented by any Democrat, including Senator Hillary Clinton, a competitor for the party's nomination.
At his campaign announcement, Obama said "it's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreements in the lives and heart of someone else's civil war."
Australia has been part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 and still has 1,400 troops deployed in the country, mostly in non-combat roles.
"If everybody goes, Iraq will descend into total civil war and there'll be a lot of bloodshed," Howard said. "I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory."
Obama brushed off the political attack, saying he finds it "flattering" to be criticized by such a prominent Bush supporter.
"If he's ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq I would suggest that he call up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq," he said during a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa. "Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."
After Howard's remarks were publicized Sunday, U.S. Democrats told Howard to butt out of American politics.
"It is bizarre," said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. "You know, we'll make our own judgments in this country with respect to elections."
But Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican presidential hopeful, said Howard had "earned a right to comment on the world stage about their partner in this endeavour, because they have been fighting side by side with us in Iraq."
Howard's remarks, however impolitic, highlight one of the perceived weaknesses in Obama's candidacy - his lack of foreign policy experience.
Leading U.S. conservatives cast Obama on Sunday as a pacifist who is not up to the job of protecting America in the war on terror. William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, said Obama's apparent decision "to run as a dovish candidate" would be a boon to Clinton, who has so far refused to propose a timetable for troop withdrawal.
"Hillary Clinton will stay more hawkish than (Obama), and I do think that's good for Hillary Clinton," Kristol said on Fox News Sunday.
An estimated 15,000 supporters braved frigid winter conditions at the Old State Capitol in Springfield on Saturday to hear Obama formally enter the 2008 presidential race.
The choice of the Illinois capital as the starting point for the campaign was highly symbolic. The city was home to Abraham Lincoln and the site of his 1858 anti-slavery speech, in which he told Americans "a house divided against itself cannot stand."
Obama, who also got his political start in Illinois state politics, said Lincoln's efforts to unite the country before the Civil War could be a lesson to contemporary American leaders.
"Politics doesn't have to divide us on this anymore," he said.
Obama, who trails Clinton in polls of U.S. Democrats, highlighted his opposition to the war during campaign stops Sunday in Iowa and Chicago.
Even though Clinton has said the U.S. should start redeploying troops, it is "not clear" how and when she would begin the withdrawal, Obama told reporters.
Alluding to Clinton's Senate vote in 2002 authorizing Bush to go to war, Obama said: "Even at the time, it was possible to make judgments that this would not work out well."
In an interview broadcast Sunday night on CBS' 60 Minutes, Obama said he did not believe the issue of race would be a deciding factor in whether he wins the Democratic nomination.
"If I don't win this race it will be because of other factors - (that) I have not shown to the American people, a vision for where the country needs to go - that they can embrace," he said.
Obama's father was a black Kenyan immigrant and his mother a white woman from Kansas.
Some African-American pundits and authors have even suggested Obama is not "black enough" to represent them on traditional civil-rights issues. {Good Grief
}Obama, who struggled with his racial identity as a young man, dismissed the debate about his African-American credentials as ridiculous.
"If you look African-American in this society, you're treated as an African-American," he told CBS. "It's interesting though, that now I feel very comfortable and confident in terms of who I am and where I stake my ground. But I notice that a I've become a focal point for a racial debate."
© CanWest News Service 2007
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