Smeagol-Gollum
27-04-2004, 10:36
Howard has put Australia at greatest-ever risk: Hawke
April 27, 2004 - 2:27PM
Opposition Leader Mark Latham's pledge to bring Australian troops home from Iraq by Christmas if elected was right, former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke said today, adding that no prime minister has ever put this country at greater risk.
He said Prime Minister John Howard himself had said before the invasion that regime change alone was not a strong enough reason to go to war in Iraq.
Yet now Mr Howard was attacking Mr Latham in the same way that former Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies attacked Labor for calling for troops to be pulled out of Vietnam, Mr Hawke said.
"Labor was right then and Mark, you are right now," Mr Hawke told Mr Latham at the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the centenary of the swearing in of the first federal labour government in Australia and the world.
Mr Hawke said Mr Howard had two main myths in his re-election campaign - that Labor could not manage the economy and that only a conservative government could ensure national security.
Mr Hawke said it was conservative governments that had let Australia down at times of war, from Robert Menzies's failure to challenge Winston Churchill and bring troops back to defend the Pacific in World War II, and the conservatives' sending Australian troops to the Vietnam war, in which 508 Australians died.
"The truth is that no Australian prime minister has ever put this country at greater risk and for the wrong reason than John Howard with this lock-step performance with George Bush on Iraq," Mr Hawke said.
"In Australia's case, it is true that we would have been on the al-Qaeda radar screen before the invasion of Iraq.
"Nevertheless, the simple indisputable truth attested to by the intelligence agencies in the three countries concerned is that terrorist threats to Australia at home and abroad have been intensified by putting our name up in neon lights alongside the United States and the United Kingdom in this unjustified act of war.
"My friends, if I may borrow a phrase, it's time - it's time that this myth of superior conservative competence on defence and national security be understood for the humbug that it is."
Mr Hawke said the election, due later this year, was one of the most important ones facing the country as it was a chance to stop the Howard government from further dismantling the ethos of a fair go that Labor had brought to Australia.
Mr Hawke, Mr Latham, federal Labor MPs and former Labor prime ministers Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam are in Melbourne today for celebrations marking the centenary of the Watson government, which was the first social democrat federal government in the world.
AAP
SOURCE.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/27/1082831551359.html
COMMENT.
Weapons of Mass Destruction? Haven't been sighted.
Liberate Iraqis from the evil Saddam, and install democracy? Well, the brutal dictator and his barbaric regime are gone, but Coalition forces are certainly not being greeted as liberators. And the handover of power to a hand-picked puppet government looks and smells just like the sham and farce that it is.
We joined the US in Vietnam, and got out ahead of them. Looks like the right strategy this time around as well.
April 27, 2004 - 2:27PM
Opposition Leader Mark Latham's pledge to bring Australian troops home from Iraq by Christmas if elected was right, former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke said today, adding that no prime minister has ever put this country at greater risk.
He said Prime Minister John Howard himself had said before the invasion that regime change alone was not a strong enough reason to go to war in Iraq.
Yet now Mr Howard was attacking Mr Latham in the same way that former Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies attacked Labor for calling for troops to be pulled out of Vietnam, Mr Hawke said.
"Labor was right then and Mark, you are right now," Mr Hawke told Mr Latham at the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the centenary of the swearing in of the first federal labour government in Australia and the world.
Mr Hawke said Mr Howard had two main myths in his re-election campaign - that Labor could not manage the economy and that only a conservative government could ensure national security.
Mr Hawke said it was conservative governments that had let Australia down at times of war, from Robert Menzies's failure to challenge Winston Churchill and bring troops back to defend the Pacific in World War II, and the conservatives' sending Australian troops to the Vietnam war, in which 508 Australians died.
"The truth is that no Australian prime minister has ever put this country at greater risk and for the wrong reason than John Howard with this lock-step performance with George Bush on Iraq," Mr Hawke said.
"In Australia's case, it is true that we would have been on the al-Qaeda radar screen before the invasion of Iraq.
"Nevertheless, the simple indisputable truth attested to by the intelligence agencies in the three countries concerned is that terrorist threats to Australia at home and abroad have been intensified by putting our name up in neon lights alongside the United States and the United Kingdom in this unjustified act of war.
"My friends, if I may borrow a phrase, it's time - it's time that this myth of superior conservative competence on defence and national security be understood for the humbug that it is."
Mr Hawke said the election, due later this year, was one of the most important ones facing the country as it was a chance to stop the Howard government from further dismantling the ethos of a fair go that Labor had brought to Australia.
Mr Hawke, Mr Latham, federal Labor MPs and former Labor prime ministers Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam are in Melbourne today for celebrations marking the centenary of the Watson government, which was the first social democrat federal government in the world.
AAP
SOURCE.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/27/1082831551359.html
COMMENT.
Weapons of Mass Destruction? Haven't been sighted.
Liberate Iraqis from the evil Saddam, and install democracy? Well, the brutal dictator and his barbaric regime are gone, but Coalition forces are certainly not being greeted as liberators. And the handover of power to a hand-picked puppet government looks and smells just like the sham and farce that it is.
We joined the US in Vietnam, and got out ahead of them. Looks like the right strategy this time around as well.