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| Down Under |
| Howard sez Iraq pullout will do nothing to lessen the threat of terrorism |
| 2005-11-13 |
| Pulling Australia's troops out of Iraq will do nothing to lessen the terrorist threat, Prime Minister John Howard says. Mr Howard today said the threat from terrorism would not theoretically be diminished by removing Australia's troops from Iraq. "We were a terrorist target long before Iraq," he told the Nine Network's Sixty Minutes program. "The first time (al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden identified Australia in a hostile way was because of our intervention in East Timor. "In my view ... it would not theoretically make any difference. We will stay the course in Iraq." But he could not say when that commitment would end. "I can't tell you that by month or by year or by week," he said. "I can tell you it by event - when we are satisfied and our allies are satisfied that the Iraqis can provide their own security from their own resources, and until that occurs it would be self-defeating and counter-productive to leave." In October, 450 Australian troops left for Iraq in what was expected to be the final rotation of the Al Muthanna task group in southern Iraq. The last two weeks has seen the prime minister oversee the introduction of his government's tough and controversial new anti-terror laws and the arrest of 18 suspected terrorists during dramatic raids in Melbourne and Sydney. Mr Howard played down concerns that the racially and socially motivated unrest ripping through France at the moment could happen here. "Nobody should ever smugly assume that it can't happen here, but of course the situation in France is very different to the situation in Australia," he said. "France is a far more class-riven society." There have been calls in France for tougher immigration and deportation policies on the back of the violence. Mr Howard said anyone who came to Australia should integrate into Australian society. "I'm in favour of drawing people from everywhere, and when they come to this country I'm in favour of them becoming Australians, and it's our responsibility - we who are here now - to embrace them and to make them feel welcome," he said. "It's their responsibility and the responsibility particularly of their leaders to encourage that process of integration and not to see action taken to support the law as in some way directed towards them." Mr Howard said he did not support racial or ethnic stereotyping as a means of protecting Australia. "You can protect it if you know that the people who are wanting to come are potential enemies of Australia, but you don't do that by racial stereotyping or ethnic stereotyping," he said. "You do it by individual assessment." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 I beg to differ with Howard here. "...it would not theoretically make any difference..." Oh yes it would. It would lable you and Austrailia as a flock of sheeple worthy of even more attacks. You would be an even bigger target. See OBLs talks about the US in Lebanon, Somalia, etc. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2005-11-13 11:06 |