Put up or shut up, Obama tells Howard

news.com.au ^ | 12th February 2007

[naturalman1975]

US presidential candidate Barack Obama has told Prime Minister John Howard to put up or shut up. Mr Obama, speaking at a packed press conference in Iowa today, said if MrHoward was concerned about the situation in Iraq he should send 20,000 Australian troops to the strife-torn nation.

The Illinois senator added that if Mr Howard did not send the troops, then the prime minister's attack on the Democrat presidential hopeful's Iraq policy was "empty rhetoric''.

"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops on the ground now and my understanding is that Mr Howard has deployed 1400,''Mr Obama, who next year could become the first African American to be elected US president, said.

"So, if he's ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them up to Iraq.

"Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric.''

Mr Howard sparked the war of words yesterday when he took the extraordinary step of declaring that he hoped Mr Obama did not become president of the US, and that his election would be disastrous for the war on terrorism.

Mr Howard said Mr Obama's plan to pull America's combat brigades out of Iraq by March 31, 2008, was a strategy that would "destabilise and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists''.

"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,'' Mr Howard said.

[CDB]

It's George Bush's war, foreign leaders are George Bush's friends. What a childish jerk Odumba has turned out to be. The left is an ugly ugly peice of business. Blacks aren't really black if they disagree with the left, and now foreign leaders can expect their nations to be discounted if they dare speak out.

That was the most disgusting thing implied by Barack Hussein Obama. That Australia was NOT an ally of the United States, but of George Bush.

[savedbygrace]

Obama is playing to his own crowd, but he doesn't seem to realize that at the same time he's proving himself unqualified to be President. A President can't diss a major ally in public like this.

[dfwgator]

The fact of it is, the Left tends to have many of the smartest people on its side

Well they tend to know a lot. A lot that just isn't so.

[txhurl]

This may be the end of Mr. Shark Suit. No doubt Her Thighness is clapping and jumping.

[ohioWfan]

LOL! Old 'conservativejohn' isn't a very creative troll, is he?

Did he think he wouldn't get caught with the same MO and a one digit change to his pseudonym?

Are DU'ers getting dumber? I didn't think that was possible. :)

[ohioWfan]

"Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric.''

Barak Hussein Obama is 'just a bunch of empty rhetoric.'

What a lightweight fool.

[mjolnir]

Well they tend to know a lot. A lot that just isn't so.

True enough, and of course that was what worried Ronaldus Magnus most about them. As Orwell said and I'm sure he would have agreed, "There are some ideas so stupid, only an intellectual could believe them." Aristotle always thought that whereas some disciplines such as mathematics required mere intellect, political and economic wisdom required the kind of wisdom generally bought only with age and experience, and that seems right to me.

[DieHard the Hunter]

Obama's a gaffe that is surely of the same caliber as our NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark's sage observation about the WOT and GWB that got us all into trouble...

It's the sort of remark that is very hard to retrench from, despite all subsequent efforts. As they say, "Friendly fire isn't!"

Perhaps he's done the US a favor and acted as his own stalking horse...

(you don't see *that* happening often, ay!)