Howard attacks Obama on Iraq

Just reading the story this morning that John Howard has attacked Senator Barack Obama about his stance on the Iraq war. Announcing his his intention to run for president on Saturday, Obama stated his belief that US troops should be home by March 2008. Australian PM Howard said yesterday that al-Qaeda should be “praying as many times as possible” for an Obama victory in the 2008 elections. I mean wtf?! Is Howard off his rocker? Surely the goal of bringing your troops home is a positive one instead of the never-ending committment to lead Iraqis to “democracy”.

Iraq is a shit storm, plain and simple. Whether US troops pull out tomorrow or three years from now, they cannot fix the civil war ravaging the country. Iraq’s leaders whether they be religious or elected need to come together on both sides and that won’t happen unless the pressure is put on. Obama came back with a solid response to the criticism though and said: “I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops on the ground now, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1,400, so if he is (ready) to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq.”