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Australia’s Weasel Opposition: Simon Crean undermines US ally
Australia's Opposition Leader, Simon Crean has threatened a 'no-confidence motion' if John Howard supports the USA all the way in Iraq. This could bring down the Aus government - and another US ally. Crean is a weasel and the Sydney Morning Herald should be renamed The Baghdad Times------- Opposition Leader Simon Crean today accused Prime Minister John Howard of attempting to justify war while claiming he wanted a peaceful solution to the situation with Iraq. Mr Howard promised he would not send Australian troops to a war on Iraq unless all avenues of peace had been fully explored. In a detailed statement to parliament about the government's policies towards Iraq, the prime minister said the one thing to uniting all members of parliament was their abhorrence of war. Mr Crean said Mr Howard had already committed Australian troops to war without any kind of mandate. "Mr Speaker, what we've just heard from the prime minister is a justification for war not a plan for peace," he told the parliament. "We've heard the prime minister unctuously ... talk of his abhorrence of war and that he wants peace, yet he's already committed our troops to war without a mandate from the Australian people, without a mandate from the parliament and without a mandate from the United Nations." Mr Crean urged the prime minister to work to secure a peaceful solution. "The truth is that we can secure a peace and prime minister, I say to you, we must work to secure that peace, that we will not achieve that peace by committing to the path of unilaterism you are so firmly locked in to," he said. "The path to peace can only come through the United Nations." Mr Crean said Mr Howard was using unilateralism, fear and threats to handle the Iraq issue, and not the collective discipline of the United Nations. He accused Mr Howard of not being truthful to the people of Australia. He said it was clear Australia was going to war alongside the US, without support from the United Nations. "You haven't had prime minister the courage or conviction to tell the Australian people what you've done and what you've committed to," he said. "You, prime minister, have committed our troops to war and you've done it with no United Nations mandate but through a US request." Posted by: Anonymous 2003-02-04 |
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