IRAQ: Bush bullies Latham

[struggle4progress]

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Nicaragua has withdrawn its small contingent. Honduras and the Dominican Republic have announced that their small contingents will be out of Iraq by the end of this month. On June 15, Thailand announced that its contingent of 450 troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by September 20.

In the lead-up to the March Spanish election, the Bush administration also launched public attacks on Spain's opposition Socialist Party to abandon its troop withdrawal promise. Despite the March 11 terrorist bombings in Madrid, anti-war activists took to the streets and besieged the offices of the pro-war government of conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.

The anti-war movement in Australia urgently needs to respond in a similar way to Washington's campaign to get Latham to back down on his troop withdrawal promise. A demonstration of people's power is needed to counter US pressure because, while Latham says he's sticking to his promise, there are worrying signals coming from the ALP shadow cabinet.
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Iraq is shaping up to be a major election issue. The torture scandal, the strength of the Iraqi resistance, and the high number of occupation troops and their Iraqi collaborators who are being killed are having a big impact on global public opinion. The polls indicate that more than half the Australian electorate is opposed to an Australian military presence in Iraq.
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http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/586/586p12.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. Different views on latest polls

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LOUISE YAXLEY: .... The Defence Minister, Robert Hill, was asked about it in response to an opinion poll in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, showing 40 per cent of Australians think that the US alliance would be weakened under a Labor Government.
ROBERT HILL: Well this is a very anti-American Labor Opposition, more so than ever in my political life ....
LOUISE YAXLEY: But the Greens Senator Bob Brown sees significance in a different part of that same poll, which showed 56 per cent of people believed President George Bush was wrong to comment on Mark Latham's policies recently.
BOB BROWN: The, ah, alliance with America is important, but people are able to differentiate the alliance with America from the alliance with George W. Bush. Two different things, and the respect Australians have for America doesn't extend to George W. Bush
LOUISE YAXLEY: .... Labor frontbencher, Wayne Swan, says he can see one common thread in the opinion polls, and that is, Labor's ahead.
WAYNE SWAN: What I make of all of the opinion polls is that Labor has its nose in front, despite the Government's expenditure of well in excess of $100-million of taxpayers' money on blatant political advertising ....
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1137554.htm