Posted on 02/18/2003 2:02:32 PM PST by Indy Pendance
Prime Minister John Howard challenged the Australian people to throw him out of office if they did not like his policy on Iraq.
"If the public at the next election doesn't like the job I've done, they'll throw me out," he told the Nine Network after a Newspoll showed his personal standing had slumped as he supported US action against Iraq.
Labor, which insists on a new United Nations mandate for military action, was equally defiant in the face of the poll, which showed a further slide in Opposition Leader Simon Crean's popularity.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Labor's national security policy was non-negotiable, adding: "And frankly, we don't give a damn what opinion polls have to say."
Newspoll showed the Coalition led Labor by 51 to 49 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.
Mr Howard's approval rating dropped to an eight month low of 48 per cent, down from 65 per cent following the Bali bombings last October.
However, Mr Crean rated only 31 per cent and Mr Howard led him in the preferred prime minister stakes 56 to 21 per cent.
Mr Howard, who ruled out a plebiscite or conscience vote over war with Iraq, said he did not think public opinion had settled on the issue.
But in the end he would do what was in Australia's best interests and the people would have their say at the next election.
"My job is to do what I believe is right and I think it is right to take a stand against the spread of chemical and biological weapons because I'm worried they'll get into the hands of international terrorists," Mr Howard said.
Mr Crean said he thought his own popularity had slumped because of the uncertainty and angst associated with the talk of war.
"People don't like it, they're frightened for the consequences here, they're uncertain as to what is going to happen, and I think that that is a turn-off to all political leadership," he said.
"If you look at the poll, there's been no bounce for anyone, including the Greens (who unconditionally oppose war)."
The Greens, meanwhile, were angry that Iraqi propaganda was using the massive anti-war protests in Australia and round the world to claim international support for Saddam Hussein.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle said his regime had caused death and torture to many Iraqis.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle said his regime had caused death and torture to many Iraqis.
Well gee greenies there probably was not one sign condemning saddam, they were all condemning the US people and Bush, and Mr. Nettle is now mad on how his demonstration was run.
Typical lefty weasle.
Love that Australian attitude. We should do so well to imitate it in some respects (such as polls). Actually sounds a bit like the words of that great philosopher, Rhett Butler, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn..."
From ejectejecteject.com
___________________________________________
We live in interesting times. We face an adversary so mentally shackled, so consumed with hatred and revenge, that their only weapon is Terror. That is their sword. Our shield, is courage.
They want, they need us to be afraid. And some of us are. News reporters, in particular, seem to have bones made of margarine and I suspect their blood looks as pink and watery as watermelon juice. They daily tell us how afraid we are. What they’re really telling us is how afraid they are.
We have -- we here today – have lived our lives more free of fear than any humans in history. No other generation comes even close. We have conquered the diseases that have taken our children from us, slain hunger to the point where the number one health risk to poor Americans is obesity. We have a stable government, a functioning society, and teams of highly trained and magnificently skilled rescuers only three button-pushes away. Fear is not something modern Americans have had to face very often.
And when we are afraid, we seem to fear the most unlikely things: plane crashes and terrorist attacks. Nothing baffles me more than listening to a 340 pound smoker, a person who will drive drunk, without seatbelts, talking about how they are going to die in a commercial jetliner.
Terrorists worry me, but they don’t frighten me. The worst thing they can do is kill me, and despite my best efforts to the contrary, that’s going to happen regardless of what they may scheme and fantasize about.
Terrorism can never, never destroy this nation. They may kill thousands of us, perhaps even take one of our cities – cities they could never build, filled with people they can never be. Perhaps it will be my city. Perhaps it will be me. But if they do, life will go on. Some things are bigger and more important than our own lives. America can survive the loss of a city. America can survive the loss of all her cities. Because our image and idea of America lives in our hearts, and as long as there are Americans alive in the world, America will survive.
But there are people that do scare me – people that scare me very badly indeed, because these people have the power to kill this idea we call America.
We have turned our children’s minds over to certain people who are so bitter and angry, so hateful of the country that gave them birth and safety, that their poison now fills our college campuses and has overrun entire communities. These are not loyal dissenters who rightfully question the policies of our nation, but small and diseased people who cannot understand why their fantasy ideologies are never in vogue, who can see nothing noble or magnificent on their foggy and dim and very close inner horizons. People whose anger and envy have driven them to turn all virtue into an ironic smirk, people who react to strength and morality with the revulsion born of a lifetime of failure and dark plans for revenge on the happy, the confident and the self-reliant.
I fear these people. I hate them. I hate them because they can kill our confidence, corrode our will, poison our history and make us believe we are the base, savage and dismal society they see through their cataracts of failure. These people can kill America. And they are determined to do it if we let them. And the one thing they mock and spit on, the one trait they despise above all others, is the physical and moral courage that they have never known, and that is the leaden nugget of their self-hatred.
There are people – Americans – who would turn this into the Land of the Guilty and the Home of the Terrified. We cannot let them do this. We simply can not.
The Australian Greens' point of view here seems to be almost unique on the Left.
Wow, the Greens are finally taking responsibility for their peacenik stance: they admit they support dictators!!! ;)
The words "fat" and "lazy" come to mind here.
I don't think he believes one word of this, but it sure is refreshing to hear any politician say it.
We must never forget that even Osama bin Laden, himself, noted that Saddam Hussein is a Socialist. However, bin Laden told his followers it's OK to support Hussein, even though he is a Socialist, because of Hussein's fight against America. Bin Laden even thanked the international Left for supporting his cause!
Leftists may call themselves Communists, or Socialists, or National Socialists (Nazis), or Liberals, or Progressives, or by some other name. But they are all ideological descendants of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. Leftist ideology has been the cause of more human suffering and blood-letting than any other ideology in human history.
God Bless our brave Australian allies!
I frankly think this is the tact that both Bush and Blair should take as well. Something along the lines of "I'd rather do the right thing and be voted out of office than get re-elected after failing to do the right thing".
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