Fed: Australia risks being left in Iraq: Labor

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2007
Fed: Australia risks being left in Iraq: Labor

SYDNEY, Aug 25 AAP - Australian soldiers might end up "holding the baby in an Iraq
civil war", Labor foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland says.

Mr McClelland today called on Prime Minister John Howard to clarify a report in The
Australian newspaper in which he appeared to commit Australian troops to remain in Iraq
as other troops were leaving.

"It's now imperative for the prime minister to clarify what he means when he says Australian
troops may remain in Iraq even though the US and British may commit to a phase withdrawal,"

Mr McClelland said.

"Given that we rely heavily on support from those two countries, there's every chance
that the security situation faced by our troops could be made more dangerous.

"We could be the last ones holding the baby in an Iraq civil war."

Mr McClelland said Mr Howard was attempting to sound tough and single minded on the
Iraq issue in an election year.

"This is preventing him from recognising and acknowledging that his current open-ended
and unconditional strategy is failing in Iraq," Mr McClelland said.

"And in particular it is failing to put real pressure on Prime Minister Maliki in Iraq
to get their own house in order and make the necessary political compromises to end the
political violence in Iraq."

Mr Howard said in The Australian that he had written to the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
to express his frustration over the slow progress in promoting political stability in
the country.

He also raised the possibility of Australia maintaining its troop levels in Iraq as
the US or British were making reductions.

"You've got to always keep a sense of proportion about the size of our force," Mr Howard said.

"It's doing terrific work but compared to the American force it's quite small.

"This idea that if there's a reduction of the US or British force, then there's automatically
got to be a reduction in our force ignores that it's a much smaller number.

"In any event, I don't get the word that the Americans are going to change their policy in Iraq.

"I think (US) President (George W) Bush will want to see the surge through."

AAP dr/sjk/bwl

KEYWORD: IRAQ LABOR LEAD

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