Posted on 02/04/2003 5:06:59 PM PST by knighthawk
JOHN Howard yesterday delivered his case for restraining Iraq to Australians still sceptical about the nation's involvement in the looming campaign.
The Prime Minister used a speech to Parliament on its first sitting day of the year to sum up the Government's case for siding with the US and Britain.
He pointedly addressed the unrest of many who have not been convinced the campaign against Iraq is Australia's business and who are unhappy with the prospect of a US-led war.
But he said he was still hopeful of a diplomatic solution and war was the last resort.
"The Government will not make a final decision to commit to military conflict unless and until it is satisfied that all achievable options for a peaceful resolution have been explored," Mr Howard said.
"The other point of agreement shared by Members in this House, by our community and by the community of nations is that Iraq must not be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction.
"For the security and stability of our world, it must be disarmed."
Mr Howard said Australian troops were already in the Middle East as part of the strategy supported by the US and Britain to increase pressure on Iraq for a diplomatic settlement. Some 60 per cent of voters opposed the early deployment, according to a Newspoll published in yesterday's The Australian.
Labor Leader Simon Crean used his speech to Parliament to accuse Mr Howard of complying with the wishes of US PresidentGeorge Bush while ignoring the fears of Australians. "What we've just heard from the Prime Minister is a justification for war, not a plan for peace," Mr Crean said.
"We've heard the Prime Minister unctuously in this House talk of his abhorrence of war and that he wants peace, yet he's already committed our troops to war without a mandate from the Australian people, without a mandate from the Parliament and without a mandate from the United Nations."
Mr Howard said the issue posed difficult choices and that our natural instinct was to recoil from the thought of war in any form.
"The temptation to turn our back on the problem and hope it will go away is great. Yet the realities of the world in which we live do not permit us that luxury," he said.
Mr Howard said Australia had a direct involvement in the future of Iraq through:
OUR participation in agreements to limit the proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons;
THE need to enforce national security by ensuring stability in the Middle East;
THE fear that if not restrained, Iraq would give its horror weapons to terrorist groups which could strike here;
AUSTRALIA'S close ties with the United States, which was the nation most important to our long-term security; and
THE existing involvement of Australian forces in controlling Iraq, which began 12 years ago.
"If the international community does not act now to disarm Iraq, it will have made a mockery of years of effort to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction," Mr Howard said.
"It will encourage others to mimic Iraq."
Mr Crean accused Mr Howard of not telling the Australian people what deal he had made with President Bush.
"You haven't had, Prime Minister, the courage or conviction to tell the Australian people what you've done and what you've committed to," he said. "You, prime minister, have committed our troops to war and you've done it with no United Nations mandate but through a US request."
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer dismissed a Nine network report that he had told a diplomat back in October Australia could not withdraw from the Gulf.
A note by the New Zealand diplomat taken after the October 24 meeting said: "Mr Downer said that Australia would indeed prefer UN backing. However, and this was not a point that could be made publicly, Australia was not in a position if the UN process broke down, to withdraw our ships and other presence from the Gulf."
Mr Downer last night said he had been referring to the two Australian frigates on UN-authorised interception work in the Gulf.
The minister said the comments had been made well before UN resolution 1441 was passed in November, calling for Iraq to comply with weapons inspectors.
BINGO!
And, thank you, Australia.
"But to the youth of America, as to the youth of all the Britains I say 'You cannot stop. We must go on. It must be world anarchy or world order... You will find in the British Commonwealth good comrades to whom you are united..." Winston S. Churchill, 1943
Tony
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