Howard gets no confidence vote

http://news.ninemsn.com.au ^ | 08:28 AEST Thu 6 Feb 2003 | AAP 2003

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Howard gets no confidence vote

The Senate declared it had no confidence in Prime Minister John Howard - the first time in 102 years it withdrew support for a sitting prime minister.

The Senate also censured the government over its forward deployment of Australian troops to the Persian Gulf for a possible invasion of Iraq.

In a 33-31 vote, the opposition and minor parties passed the six-point motion condemning the government and prime minister.

It expressed no confidence in Mr Howard and insisted the United Nations be involved in disarming Iraq.

But the motion expressed full confidence in Australia's servicemen and women on duty in the Middle East.A censure against Mr Howard from Opposition Leader Simon Crean in the House of Representatives was defeated along party lines.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Why are liberals such PANSIES ?

[Churchillspirit]

It is the usual thing to do after losing a vote of confidence.

Hope it does not result in the Australian troops being withdrawn.

[Kip Lange]

One of the earlier threads over here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/836111/posts

[narby]

It's just amazing that the left hates conservatives/Geo. Bush so much, that they're willing to support a killer like Saddam over doing the right thing.

[gaspar]

It seems that Australians learned nothing from the attack on Bali that took so many Australian lives. I guess it will take an attack on Sydney Bridge to wake them up to the fact there are some vicious terrorists surrounding them.

[Turbodog]

After the triumphant defeat of Iraq when the horrors are exposed, many of those liberals are going to wish they could take their votes back. In the end, Prime Minister Howard will be vindicated.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Not a pansy: (^;

We must go to war: VC hero

By Simon Kearney
February 02, 2003

ONE of Australia's bravest soldiers has called for war against Iraq with or without United Nations support, saying it would be nothing like Vietnam.

Vietnam veteran Keith Payne, the last Australian to win the Commonwealth's highest bravery award, the Victoria Cross, has backed Prime Minister John Howard's stance on Iraq.

He said if the UN did not act, the US and Australia should.

"Saddam Hussein is an evil man who kills his own people," Mr Payne, 69, said. "He is just playing around with the Western world.

"We know he has these weapons of mass destruction and we know that he's crazy enough to use them. If the UN does not police its own resolution, the US and its major coalition partners have to do something."

Mr Payne, at the time a warrant officer, received his Victoria Cross for saving dozens of his men while almost single-handedly fighting off a numerically superior force of North Vietnamese troops who had ambushed his company in May 1969.

Mr Payne said it was wrong to try to compare a potential war with Iraq to Australia's involvement in Vietnam.

"There's no parallel . . . because Vietnam was a country at war within itself, a civil war," Mr Payne said. "Here we have one nation that is bucking the UN resolution."

Mr Payne said Mr Howard had made the right decision, "bearing in mind that he is in the possession of far greater intelligence information than what we're getting and nor should we get at this stage".

The Sunday Telegraph

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/836365/posts

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(Australian) Senate passes Iraq no confidence motion
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