Put up or shut up, Obama tells Howard
Obama is speaking to one of our closet allies, like some punk kid would speak....Real Presidential....This idiot can not become our Commander in Cheif..
By Peter Mitchell and Peter Veness in Los Angeles
February 12, 2007 01:32pm
US presidential candidate Barack Obama has told Prime Minister John Howard to put up or shut up.
Mr Obama, speaking at a packed press conference in Iowa today, said if MrHoward was concerned about the situation in Iraq he should send 20,000 Australian troops to the strife-torn nation.
The Illinois senator added that if Mr Howard did not send the troops, then the prime minister's attack on the Democrat presidential hopefuls Iraq policy was "empty rhetoric''.
"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops on the ground now and my understanding is that Mr Howard has deployed 1400,''Mr Obama, who next year could become the first African American to be elected US president, said.
"So, if he's ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them up to Iraq.
"Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric.''
Mr Howard sparked the war of words yesterday when he took the extraordinary step of declaring that he hoped Mr Obama did not become president of the US, and that his election would be disastrous for the war on terrorism.
Mr Howard said Mr Osama's plan to pull America's combat brigades out of Iraq by March 31, 2008, was a strategy that would "destabilise and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists''.
"If I were running al-Qaeda 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,'' Mr Howard said.
Mr Howard's comments came a day after Mr Obama officially launched his US presidential campaign and the clash quickly became one of the top news stories in the US.
Spokesman for Mr Obama, Robert Gibbs, travelling with the senator in Iowa, told American reporters Mr Howard should contribute more Australian troops "so some American troops can come home''.
"It's easy to talk tough when it's not your country or your troops making the sacrifices,'' Mr Gibbs said.
Mr Howard's attack also drew criticism from other senior US Democrats.
Oregon senator Ron Wyden said: "The most charitable thing you can say about Mr Howard's comment is bizarre''.
"We'll make our own judgments in this country with respect to elections and Barack Obama is a terrific public servant.''
Mr Obama and Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Convention, noted Mr Howard's close relationship with Republican president George W Bush.
"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,'' Mr Obama said.
"I take that as a compliment.''
Mr Howard also managed to upset at least one Republican senator.
"I would prefer that Mr Howard stay out of our domestic politics and we will stay out of his domestic politics,'' Texas Republican senator John Cornyn said.
Mr Obama, 45, is the top challenger to Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the Democratic Party's candidate for next year's US presidential election.
Mr Obama has vowed to end the Iraq war if elected president.
Mr Howard's comments received plenty of airplay in the US, with 24-hour news channels CNN and Fox News regularly running reports about the war of words.
But he appeared unrepentant today, saying Mr Obama had failed to address the substance of the war in Iraq.
"I think the most interesting thing about (Senator Osama's comments) is that it didn't really address the substance of the issue,'' Howard told ABC Radio.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...9-1702,00.html
Last edited by stephanie; 02-12-2007 at 12:59 AM.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."
Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)
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