Rudd supported PM's Iraq stand

news.com.au ^ | 12th August 2007

[naturalman1975]

A LEAKED letter from Kevin Rudd to Prime Minister John Howard shows the Opposition Leader backed Australia's involvement in Iraq after the invasion.

The 2003 letter gave a detailed briefing on how Mr Howard could win in Iraq.

The letter appears at odds with Mr Rudd's current position that Iraq is "the greatest failure of national security policy since Vietnam".

.....

Yesterday Mr Rudd accused Mr Howard of positioning to withdraw troops after warnings to his Iraqi counterpart that support for the war in Australia was waning. He tried yesterday to play down the private letter and accused the Prime Minister of "crab walking" away from the war towards Labor's position of a phased troop withdrawal.

"Six weeks before an election and Mr Howard is now crab walking out of his Iraq commitment," Mr Rudd said. "He should give up trying to have a bet both ways and simply commit to . . . a staged withdrawal."

Mr Rudd's letter to the Prime Minister in November 2003 shows he offered policy ideas to Mr Howard.

"Now that regime change has occurred in Baghdad, it is the Opposition's view that it is now the responsibility of all people of goodwill, both in this country and beyond, to put their shoulder to the wheel in an effort to build a new Iraq," Mr Rudd wrote.

[knarf]

Rudd .. Reid ... what’s the diff but a couple of vowels.

[generalhammond]

Rudd’s typical of the labor ilk (ie liberal/left). Say any lie to get elected so they can implement their regressive ,back to the past, trade union dominated employment system where it’s almost impossible to fire unproductive moss gatherers. Nothing like jumping on the favourite of the left: Iraq is lost so lets get out now. The annoying thing is he’ll get elected for having pretty hair (like Edwards) while John Howard might lose because of his eyebrows. That’s the MSM for you who seem to ignore the economic prosperity brought by this conservative government and the fact that Labor nearly wrecked the economy each time they were in power.