Posted on 02/11/2007 2:36:59 PM PST by FairOpinion
PRIME Minister John Howard has been described as bizarre and irrelevant by US Democrats after he launched an attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Mr Howard said yesterday al-Qaeda would be praying for an Obama-led White House because Senator Obama has promised to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.
A string of Democrats have reacted angrily to Mr Howard's comments which have received widespread media coverage in the US.
Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Convention, criticised Mr Howard's strong links to US President George W. Bush.
"The prime minister has been a great friend of George Bush's, he has been with him lock-step from day one on this war in Iraq," Mr McAuliffe said.
"He and George Bush, they can go off and talk to each other, we don't care what he says."
Democrat senator Ron Wyden said it was hard to be polite about Mr Howard.
"The most charitable thing you can say about Mr Howard's comment is bizarre," Senator Wyden said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Australian Leader (PM John Howard): Al-Qaeda Wants Obama
"Australian Prime Minister John Howard ...said Obama's proposals would spell disaster for the Middle East.
"I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television.
"If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."
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2. The Truth Hurts.
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3. It's OK for Kerry and the Democrats to bash the US on foreign soil, it's all part of "free speech", regardless of the negative consequences, but the PM of another sovereign country all of a sudden has no rights, if he dares to criticize, i.e. tell the truth about the Democrats.
Exactly. What makes democrats squeal the loudest is the truth. The shrill responses are always dead giveaways.
A hit dog howls. I wish Republicans over here had Howard's...uh...courage. Any idiot knows that his assertion that the enemies of this country can't wait till the "cut and run" Dems take over is absolutely realistic. The happy, sappy days of the Clintoon era are a happy prospect for them. Anyone with a grocery sack full of bills for the payoff can get anything they want in DC. Just ask Johnny Chung.
Aren't these the people who believe in multilateralism? Aren't these the people who believe in dialog? Why are then insulting our allies?
Yes the truth hurts them, but then they no nothing about it. Good for John Howard, one of our true allies.
Then how do they explain Osama's Sept./Oct. '04 video tape encouraging us all to vote for John Kerry?
SUCK IT UP BARACK OBAMA - IT WAS THE DEMOCRAT PARTY THAT SENT KERRY AND HIS SISTER IN TO LOUDMOUTH THEIR WAY THROUGH OZ AND MAKE COMMENTS ABOUT HOWARD WHEN HE WAS CAMPAIGNING IN 2004.
WTF??
Tell it like it is, John Howard.
"He and George Bush, they can go off and talk to each other, we don't care what he says."
NOW THAT'S A LIE.
As truthful as Howard's statements might be, I don't think he should have made them in the first place. He has no role in the US politics, period. Let the candidates within US make their own case for/against any Iraq policy.
Of course, the DUmmy heads' reaction to the PM's comments are worse, petty, childish and all of those things....
But it's all fine and dandy when Chirac or Puting make negative statements about the US and Bush's policies. The Democrats are just trying to give Obama cover for his childish response to Howard's criticism.
Consider the source of the complaining? A DemocRAT sleezeball punk and a little pussy DemocRAT wimp.
They are really upset when they try to kill your image and pull out the power code words, and they mean business.
Just ask all the women Bill Clinton ever slept with, the ones that survived, that is.
And if more words are tried and they don't work... after two weeks the whole story will be referred to as 'old news, we must move on' Rationalizing and obfucation is their specialty.
Allies are criticized for links to Bush - Terry Mc Cullauf (sp)
Talk about bizarre
Obama dismisses Howard's Iraq criticism
Democrats have reacted with disdain, with Mr Obama saying if Mr Howard is so strongly supportive of the war in Iraq then he should send another 20,000 Australian troops into battle.
"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1,400, so if he is ... to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq," Mr Obama told reporters in the mid-western US state of Iowa.
If Mr Howard did not take up the invitation, Mr Obama said the comments became nothing more than "empty rhetoric".
"I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced (I would run for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination)."
Mr Howard started the fight when he criticised Mr Obama's plan to withdraw US combat troops by March 2008.
"If America pulls out of Iraq in March 2008 it can only be in circumstances of defeat," Mr Howard told Nine Network on Sunday.
Obama dismisses Howard's Iraq criticism
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer later weighed into issue, saying Mr Howard has every right to speak out.
He dismissed Senator Obama's suggestion that Australia should boost its troop commitment to Iraq by 20,000 it if was so strongly supportive of the war.
"That would be half of our army. Australia is a much smaller country than the United States and so he might like to weigh that up," Mr Downer told ABC radio.
"It's entirely appropriate the Australian government expresses its view in a free world. You won't get anywhere trying to close down debate."
The foreign minister, in Turkey for meetings with the secular Islamic democracy on security, repeated the government's belief that a US withdrawal from Iraq would mean victory for al-Qaeda.
"A precipitous withdrawal by the United States from Iraq would be a catastrophe."
It makes it hard to be an ally of the United States because you are going to get crap at home and even crapped on by people in the U.S. government as well. Kinda makes it a mystery why anybody would want to help us at any point considering how little upside there is beyond the actual good done by the work being confronted.
Mr. Howard has it right. A Johnny come lately in the form of Hussein Obama has a bit of baggage that will drag him into oblivion with his buddys "spit in the white folks soup" - Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of Toowana Brawley fame.
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