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Howard keeps Baghdad troops where they are
 PRIME Minister John Howard has rejected Labor calls for Australian troops guarding the embassy building in Baghdad to be moved to a more secure location. The opposition wants the 120-strong security detachment guarding the embassy building in a residential suburb of Baghdad transferred to the US and Australian military headquarters at Camp Victory, where three Australian diplomats have already been relocated. The diplomats were moved last month following repeated attacks on the mission and they will eventually be shifted to a facility in the heavily fortified Green Zone.Labor wants to know why the troops remain in the dangerous embassy location when there are no diplomats left to guard. Mr Howard said the latest advice from the chief of the Australian Defence Force was that the best option was for the security detachment to remain where it was. Moving the troops could also send the wrong message to insurgents, particularly coming after the recent Iraqi elections. "Given the democratic dividend that has been won in Iraq by the Iraqi people and the tremendous step forward that the Iraqi people have made over the last few weeks, far from talking about pulling troops out, if we want to secure and reassure, we shouldn't be taking about that," Mr Howard said. "This of all times is a time for reinforcement and reassurance rather than to be talking about pulling troops out. If you want to send a message to the Iraqi people and send a message to those who are trying to destroy the hopes of democracy in Iraq, you don't talk about pulling troops out." Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland said the Government needed a better explanation as to why the troops remained in place just to guard a disused building. "The only explanation given to them to date is that they are guarding Australian assets, essentially bricks and mortar," he said. "It is strongly the view of the Opposition that the life of one Australian serviceman is not worth all the bricks and mortar in Baghdad and the government explanations to date just aren't adequate." The official Australian embassy was set up in a suburban Baghdad house during the reign of Saddam Hussein. That site is outside the more secure international or Green Zone and the Government foreshadowed a move into the safer area in 2003. A force of 120 Australian soldiers, based in an unfinished apartment block next door, provided protective security. The Government has flagged the size of the security contingent may be reviewed once the Australian mission has been relocated to the Green Zone. Posted by: God Save The World 2005-02-09 |
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