Posted on 05/14/2003 12:21:41 AM PDT by fightinJAG
Bush leadership vindicated: PM May 14, 2003
PRIME Minister John Howard has admonished Labor politicians for pillorying George W Bush over his leadership in the conflict with Iraq.
He said their dire predictions of doom had proven unfounded.
Mr Howard, fresh back from a trip to the US where he was a guest at the president's Texas ranch, said the decisive victory of the US-led coalition reflected enormous credit on the strength and determination of President Bush's leadership.
"I remind the house of the way in which his role was vilified and traduced by many of those who sat opposite," he said in a Prime Ministerial statement to parliament.
"The way which speaker after speaker from the Australian Labor Party impugned his integrity, assaulted his judgment and called into question his ability to lead the US in this very very difficult conflict - history has proven them wrong.
"The performance of the president has illustrated how infantile were their protests, and the leadership that he has given on this occasion I believe will bring about a permanent change of attitudes in the Middle East."
Mr Howard said Australian military forces acquitted themselves with great distinction and professionalism in contributing to the liberation of the sorely oppressed people of Iraq.
He said all Australians would join him in expressing immense gratitude that to date no Australian casualties had been sustained.
"Not only was the military operation completed quickly and successfully, but it is also worth recording that all the doomsday predictions, particularly many that came from those who sit opposite, were not realised.
"The oil wells were not set on fire, there were not millions of refugees, the dams on the Tigris and Euphrates were not breached to bring on catastrophic flooding and there was no long drawn out bloody Stalingrad-style street to street fighting in Baghdad.
"For all of this we must be immensely grateful.
"But it is a reminder of the hysteria and the doomsday predictions that accompany operations of this kind."
Mr Howard last week visited Australian forces stationed in Qatar in the Persian Gulf.
He said many of the 2000 personnel involved in the conflict would be returning home this month and welcome home marches would be held in Perth and Sydney.
Coming home are two warships, special forces and commandoes, F/A-18 Hornet pilots and support crew and navy clearance divers.
About 1200 personnel will stay on in the rebuilding stage.
The word traduced.
It's hard to believe that it's only been two months.
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