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| Australia’s Weasel Opposition: Simon Crean undermines US ally |
| 2003-02-04 |
| 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 |
| #6 Australia is ruled by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the Nationals which is a small conservative rural based party that has no say in pretty much anything of importance in Australia. |
| Posted by: Paul 2003-02-04 21:48:26 |
| #5 I'm still trying to coax the Javascript into speaking Netscape. It works on IE... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-02-04 14:07:37 |
| #4 Well, I'm not an expert on this, but if I recall correctly, Australia doesn't have a coalition---the Liberal Party (Howard's party) has an outright majority. If Crean can get a number of Liberals to vote with him, he can force a new election, but if not he's just blowing smoke. This article http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/04/1044318595263.html says that Australians are the most pro-war of all countries surveyed, including the US. That's only with UN approval, though. Bring back Kim Beazly! The Sydney Morning Herald is like a Guardian produced by teenagers. (Still can't work those links. Your Link button doesn't work for me, and putting them in by hand sticks a "http://rantburg.com" in front, rendering the link useless.) |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2003-02-04 13:32:32 |
| #3 El Id, the article says Crean is the Leader of the Opposition. If he believes he can bring down the government, run on the issue, and make gains in the next election, he will. This is more than a gesture - if his reading of the public is correct, it could represent a chance to take power himself. Of course, if Crean succeeded in the middle of the fight, the consequences for Australia would be dramatic and severe. Basically, he'd be the newest inductee of the Gerhard Schroder club. |
| Posted by: Joe Katzman 2003-02-04 11:20:31 |
| #2 Simon Crean? Not to be disrespectful of our Australian allies, but the name brings to mind Uriah Heep... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-02-04 10:03:23 |
| #1 In a parliamentary system,the no-confidence motion has meaning only when the ruling party or coalition is breaking apart and a new goverment needs to be formed.It's not like the Congress in the USA voting on an issue because members of the ruling party would,in this case,be voting themselves out of power.In other words,Mr. Bean,I mean Crean, is just making a gesture of opposition. |
| Posted by: El Id 2003-02-04 06:10:41 |