Australia: Get Behind Your Troops

The Daily Telegraph ^ | January 26 2003 | PHILLIP COOREY

[knighthawk]

THE US said yesterday Australia's commitment of troops to Iraq was a "major effort" that further strengthened ties between the two countries.

US Defence Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Richard Myers praised Prime Minister John Howard's decision to deploy about 2500 personnel to maintain pressure on Iraq.

General Myers said it was never easy for a leader to commit his people to the dangers of a potential war, and hoped Australians would support their troops.

"If forces are going to go into combat, you would like to know that your country is behind it, of course, and that you are fighting for the right cause," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

In a special briefing for Australian media in Washington, General Myers said the US did not regard the Australian contribution as a token, compared with 150,000 US and 26,000 British personnel already sent to the Persian Gulf.

"It's a very major effort," he said.

"No leader of any country would ever send its forces forward thinking it's going to be a token effort because if, in the end, Australia makes a decision to participate in force, then it is putting its sons and daughters at risk.

"I would never refer to it as some trivial contribution; it's a major contribution when a country does that."

General Myers said Australia's commitment also sent a message to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"It's just one more example to the Iraqi regime that there are a lot of countries lining up to try to continue to put some force and muscle behind the whole diplomatic initiative that is working through the UN," he said.

"Obviously, our military-to-military relationship goes back to every conflict we have ever been in. Australians have always been side-by-side with the Yanks, and we appreciate that very much."

General Myers declined to detail the role Australians would play in a war, but said its SAS soldiers would "blend in seamlessly" with US forces.

"Australian forces are very well prepared, well trained, motivated and very helpful to the United States," he said.

General Myers said it was important for international security that Iraq was not allowed to pass on chemical and other weapons to the wrong hands.

He also said he was unable to guarantee that Australian forces would not have chemical weapons fired at them in a war, adding that was one of the big unknowns.

President Bush will begin what aides say is a countdown to war in a State-of-the-Union speech on Tuesday, challenging other nations to declare where they stand on the war against terrorism and the dangers posed by Iraq.

The rapid-fire developments will intensify tomorrow, when chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reports to the UN on his team's efforts to find Iraq's hidden weapons.

General Myers said all Western nations, including Australia and the US, were terrorism targets, with the threat being al-Qaeda.

He said documents found in Afghanistan, and intelligence received since then, had shown that Osama bin Laden's terrorism network was "very interested in chemical, biological and some sort of nuclear device, whether it is radiological or nuclear explosion".

[knighthawk]

Ping

[facedown]

You don't see much about this in the US press because much of the left's strategy here is to portray America as acting unilateraly, as though that would be wrong even if it were true.

[knighthawk]

Same here. They keep Australia out of the picture in Europe too. They launched the statement of Powell that if the US would go against Iraq with the support of enough allies, as if it was just untrue.

Europe has made itself irrelevant.

I would choose Australian SAS over anything our 'allies' France and Germany have.

[The Iguana]

We don't have much better allies in the world than the Aussies.

They don't get the credit they deserve.

[facedown]

I would choose Australian SAS over anything our 'allies' France and Germany have.

Yup, I want this guy on my team!