Australia to send 450 more troops to Iraq

[cal04]

Prime Minister John Howard has announced an extra 450 Australian Defence Force personnel will be deployed to Iraq. The troops are a new task force to provide security for Japanese engineers and will cost Australia between $250 million and $300 million per year.

The soldiers will be mainly from the 1st Brigade based in Darwin and will leave for southern Iraq in 10 weeks' time. Mr Howard says there are currently about 950 Australian Defence personnel in and around Iraq.

He says the new deployment was not a request from US President George W Bush.The original request was from the British Government, but Mr Howard says the Japanese factor "weighed crucially" in his mind. He says the British and US are already carrying a heavy commitment and that Australia's involvement in Iraq was under continual review.

"The circumstances have changed and it is now four-and-a-half-months since the Iraq election and we have to respond to those changed circumstances," he said. "Self-evidently we would have liked the major combat to have gone differently ... Coalition withdrawal or defeat is unimaginable."Mr Howard said for Iraq to have a successful transition to democracy, the Coalition presence must remain on the ground.
Defence Minister Robert Hill said the Navy would play a key role in protecting oil rigs and deterring smugglers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1308317.htm

[Massacure]

1. This is a duplicate.

[cal04]

2. I don't think it was posted before

[NNN0LHI]

3. Australia Says It Will Send 450 More Troops to Iraq

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBGKY1GH5E.html

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australia will send 450 more troops to southern Iraq to help protect Japanese engineers and help bolster the country's fledgling democracy, Prime Minister John Howard announced Tuesday. snip

Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, sent 2,000 troops to take part in the invasion of Iraq and still has nearly 900 troops in and around the country. Howard said it would take about 10 weeks for the new troops to prepare for their trip to Iraq and that they would likely stay there for a year.

"This has not been, is not and will not be an easy decision for the government; I know it will be unpopular with many," Howard said. The Australian troops will replace Dutch soldiers who had been serving in the al-Muthana province of southern Iraq but are scheduled to pull out by mid-March.

more

[Massacure]

4. Iraqi Resistance will make 450 more car bombs.

Don't ask me who said it, no one did... yet...

[Disturbed]

6. Ausie Military Voluntary?

This guy Howard a RW ?

[Skip Intro]

5. Weird our closest "partners" in this all were former Brittish outposts

Not that I'm saying the old Empire never really died, and London still controls world events, and we act at their whim -

Just interesting...

[NNN0LHI]

8. Australia has a history of teaming up with the USA in lost causes.

They had troops in Vietnam until the final chapter of that story too. Not sure how many, or what there job was, or even how many casualties they took. But they were there.

Don

[rooboy]

9. We have a depressing history of loyalty, it's true.

I believe we were the first country in behind the USA in Vietnam. We lost 500 with about 2500 wounded. We also went into Korea with similar enthusiasm.

We also lost more soldiers per head of population than any other country in WWI.

[mrdmk]

7. 450 more troops

These people will be working 9 to 5, 5 days a week. Good show.

[LynnTheDem]

13. "Australia" has NOT been a "staunch ally"; HOWARD has been

a "staunch ally", but the MAJORITY (75%) of Australians oppose bush's invasion & occupation of Iraq.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/advocacy/protest/iraq/2003/0208aussie.htm

http://www.opendemocracy.net/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=80&threadID=34196&tstart=0

Poll shows three out of four Australians oppose a war with Iraq

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:7hb18KUZN9oJ:www.cpa.org.au/garchve5/1109oil.html++Australians+oppose+invasion+and+occupation+of+Iraq&hl=en


But then, citizens don't matter.

To "spread freedom and democracy" one must ignore the vast majority of one's own people.

[rinsd]

19. That was then.....

http://theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,11790538,00.html

This poll is from Dec '04. While a solid majority believe the war wasn't worth it(60%), a sizable number (45%) believe the troops should stay as lon as necessary.

They also just re-elected Howard.

[LynnTheDem]

22. They've never supported the invasion of Iraq

And they re-elected Howard not because of Iraq, but in spite of it. And because of Howard's fear-mongering on home loans.

[ausiedownunderground]

10. Like Rooboy says we have a depressing "death wish" over here in Oz

For some reason, whenever America goes to "War" we seem to have a right-wing conservative government in power who fall over themselves to be the first to offer America "foreign cannon fodder". These right wing governments still believe that we are "at heart" still part of the old Anglo-Saxon empire. Oz is now a vibrant multicultural society slowly starting to recognize that the "old" anglo-saxon empire is really "no more"! As america and Britain continue their slow declines they are being replaced by China,India and the EU. However our conservatives over here find that concept very difficult to take and as a consequence whenever America or Britain ask, Oz conservative governments still deliver! bodies to the battlefield no matter where or what the war is about. We still seem to have an inherent "inferiority" complex and a desperate desire to please America and Britain. Although our current conservative Prime Minister John Howard has taken this willingness to please to extraordinary lengths. If Jeff Gannon and John Howard were in the same room as the AWOL Chimp it would be bloody in an effort to get to "Zipper One" first.
However, it should also be noted that very rarely do these troop deployments at America's request end up in victory, but usually lead to death and maiming on a pretty high scale for our forces. This move by the conservative government is very similiar to early "Vietnam" days when numbers kept slowly creeping up and up over time until eventually a "Draft" occurred over here as well as in the US. Currently our armed forces are all volunteers!
The one good thing to likely come out of this is that it will "awaken" more voters to the sneaking realization that maybe Iraq is not going as well as our MSM potrays it as! A lot of my friends have been telling their friends to keep an eye on when more troops get sent etc etc. A further likely good point is that as Oz forces join US and Brit forces in yet another ever deepening quagmire, history shows the greater liklihood that the conservatives will loose the next election to the democrqatic opposition - who immediately withdraw Oz forces!!

[daleo]

11. Canada used to be "ready, aye, ready", too

Somehow we managed to mostly shake ourselves loose of that madness (elements of the population still have a spasm, now and then). So, it can change.

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

14. Top line!

"If Jeff Gannon and John Howard were in the same room as the AWOL Chimp it would be bloody in an effort to get to "Zipper One" first."

Hahaha. Classic. Depressingly true, but made me LMAO.

Of course the disgraceful thing is Howard went to the last election with nary a mention of any chance sending more troops. Lying bastard.

The sad thing about the unstinting support our governments have given whatever war the US has got going at any given time, is the fact that mostly americans never even realise we're there.

I still find many Americans surprised to hear we were in Vietnam. I know the death toll was small, but once you have a draft and 18 year olds are being shipped off to war, it starts tearing up your society regardless of how many get killed or wounded. We went through that in a similar way to the US.

With Iraq, again, we're making ourselves unpopular with our south-east Asian neighbours and yet hardly making a blip on the radar in the US.

[LynnTheDem]

12. Howie the duck didn't mention this during his election campaign...

In fact he intimated the opposite.

Hey Aussies, ya been lied to & duped. Again.

[Moderator]

15. kick

to combine threads

[cal04]

16. Howard admits backflip on Iraq troops decision

Prime Minister John Howard has conceded the Federal Government has reversed an earlier decision to not send additional troops to Iraq
An additional 450 troops will be sent to southern Iran to begin work in early May, training security forces and protecting Japanese soldiers involved in the reconstruction effort.

The commitment came after the Dutch Government decided to pull out its 1,400 troops, in the face of strong domestic pressure. Mr Howard has told ABC radio's AM program, circumstances in Iraq have altered and he does not apologise for changing the Government's policy.

"I'm not running away from the fact that I had previously said I did not contemplate a major increase and that was a fair statement of the Government's state of the mind at the time I made that," he said. "But in these situations a government have a capacity, if circumstances alter, and it is judged to be not only in our own interests, but also in the broader interests of democracy in the Middle East, that we make those changes."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1308811.htm

[Kimber Scott]

17. Iran? A Freudian slip, I assume. nt

[cal04]

18. the author must have noticed that too

An additional 450 troops will be sent to southern Iraq to begin work in early May, training security forces and protecting Japanese soldiers involved in the reconstruction effort.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1308811.htm

[jayfish]

20. Uhhh... How In The World Does...

it cost $666,666.66 per soldier, per year, to go to Iraq??? That's just crazy.

Jay

[applegrove]

21. Why not just stop with the lamb shipments to Iran? Cause a revolution!!

[ausiedownunderground]

23. Why 450 Oz troops to replace 1,400 Dutch Troops?

Why do the Japanese think that 450 Oz troops are good enough to replace 1,400 Dutch troops? Are Oz soldiers three times better than Dutch troops???? Why is the "Howard" government saying the deployment of these troops is going to cost $300 million dollars per year?? Thats a huge amount for just 450 troops and 40 armoured personel carriers. The truth possibly could be that Howard intends to stagger Oz troop deployments over the year and beyond? 450 troops doesn't sound or look so bad in the MSM. However 3 troop deployments of 450 troops over 2005 comes to approximately 1,400 troops and with a bit of luck the general Oz public won't remember the previous deployment numbers? Already our MSM over here downgrades the number of deployed Oz troops to Iraq. Today they are all saying that 450 extra troops doubles the number of Oz troops in Iraq. This is not true!! Oz troop numbers in Iraq already numbered 900 prior to this deployment, and thats not counting our Special Ops forces who have been heavily involved in some of the "Bloodiest" engagements with the Iraqi Guerrillas. Oz killed and wounded numbers are never discussed over here by our government or our MSM.
However early "polls" on this recent deployment are showing a very strong "absolutely against" vote! That will surprise "little Johhnie" and his right-wing thugs in the conservative party!