Sunday, February 11, 2007
Good for John Howard. This defeat talk doesn't just embolden our enemies, it betrays our friends.
Howard slams Obama on Iraq policy
The first-term U.S. senator announced Saturday that he will run for the White House in 2008, saying the country's first priority should be to end the war in Iraq.
Obama has also introduced a bill to prevent U.S. President George W. Bush from increasing American troop levels in Iraq, and to remove U.S. combat forces from the country by March 31, 2008...
...Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who will face his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's policy would spell disaster for the Middle East.
"I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television.
"If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."...
Update: Obama responds:
America's ally, not Bush's.
Update2: Ed Morrissey thinks Howard is over the line (and Obama's response isn't much, either) and he's got a good point. On the other hand, my interest in Howard's statement is in the demonstration that it's not America's steadfastness and "go it alone" attitude that alienate allies, sometimes it's just as true that our unreliability leaves us alienated as well -- something that Howard's statement (Howard being a guy who himself has put a lot on the line supporting America) demonstrates.
