Posted on 01/23/2003 5:12:03 PM PST by knighthawk
PRIME Minister John Howard yesterday experienced his career's most tearful farewell to battle units -- determined to convince voters they had to be deployed.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Howard said Australia might have to join the US in an attack on Baghdad even if the UN failed to ratify a military solution.
"I think you could well have a situation where you could read the UN's assessment either way or several ways," the Prime Minister said.
He said it was vital to make an example of Iraq to prevent rogue nations feeling they could develop their own horror weapons without being challenged.
These are the arguments Mr Howard will take to voters over the next few weeks which will see the resumption of Parliament in early February and critical debates in the UN and Washington.
"The most powerful argument for what we are doing -- and what the world community is doing -- is to stop states like Iraq having weapons -- biological, chemical and potentially nuclear weapons," he said.
"Because if we don't make sure Iraq disarms, not only will she keep them and add to them and potentially use them, but other countries will copy what Iraq has done."
He spoke after farewelling 350 troops aboard the HMAS Kanimbla which left Sydney Harbour yesterday for the Persian Gulf and a possible showdown with Iraq's forces.
A squadron of elite SAS soldiers will be farewelled from Perth today.
As the naval band on the Garden Island dock yesterday played Waltzing Matilda, We are One and Advance Australia Fair, parents, children, brothers, sisters and lovers said their goodbyes aboard the transport ship.
On board the Kanimbla, tears flowed freely as loved ones spent their final moments with the troops.
It was an emotional morning for Petty Officer Mark saying farewell to his wife Michelle and two daughters. Like many of the hundreds of relatives saying goodbye to loves ones, it was the moment when families had to leave which was the most difficult.
Daughters Nicole, 13, and Phillippa, 10, tried to comfort each other, but could not fight back tears.
The family clung to each other in silence, tears streaming down their faces and each taking it in turns to hug husband and father.
Michelle said: "I just want all the men and women to come home safe and sound."
Mr Howard told the troops he would work to bring about a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi crisis but that they should be prepared for the prospect of war.
"We hope that is unnecessary. We will work as a nation and as a people to render that unnecessary if at all possible," he said.
He later told The Daily Telegraph he had spoken to 200 to 300 people, but just one told him deploying troops to the Middle East had been a mistake.
Labor Leader Simon Crean, also dockside, was a sharp contrast to the Prime Minister and defence commanders who had given morale-boosting speeches.
Mr Crean said: "I won't mince words. I don't think you should be going. I think the consequences of going it alone in a narrow group of people does potentially expose us to greater risk.
"There are only three countries out of a United Nations of 191 that are involved in forward deployment. Australia is one of them and it shouldn't be."
Able Seaman Shane, 30, faced the difficult task of saying goodbye to his three-year-old son Ben before his first overseas trip.
He was keen to meet Mr Howard and fully supports his stance on Iraq.
"I think he is doing the right thing," he said.
"I am a bit apprehensive and I don't know how long I will be away from home, but this is my job and this is what I have worked towards."
His wife Tracy, 29, said that Ben was too young to understand the significance of his father leaving, but she was worried about his departure. The couple, both in tears, clung to each other and their son until the last minute when Tracy had to leave the ship.
"I am pretty anxious about him leaving us," she said. "This is his first trip. We knew it was coming, but we didn't think it would be so soon."
Mr Howard later said "'no person in their own mind embraces military conflict" without trying to avoid it.
"We would all like to live in a world in which there were no challenges and no problems and that you could, simply by turning your back on a challenge of a rogue state possessing weapons of mass destruction, hope it would go away," he said.
"But the world has never been quite as simple as that and it's not as simple as that now."
No, it's not. It is the "Other National Anthem" of Australia (sort of like America the Beautiful is for the US) and was written in 1895, well before Gallipoli and even before the Boer War, which the author covered as a war correspondent.
Thanks for the heads up. I thought that would be odd.
Ah, the infamous 'Axis of Weasels'...
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