(Australian) Army shocked at PM's Iraq order

[rooboy]

The leader of Australia's land forces says Prime Minister John Howard's decision to double the number of troops in Iraq came as a shock.

And Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said Mr Howard must make clear to the Australian people exactly how many more troops would be sent to Iraq and for how long.

Major General Ken Gillespie said the federal government's announcement yesterday had come as a shock.

"This is not something that people were expecting," he said in Sydney today. "We are going to be incredibly busy in order to get these people ready to deploy.

"We have got quite a lot of work on our hands over the next 10 weeks to get the troops properly prepared to make sure they have everything they need to survive the environment that we are going to put them in into and that they understand the issues associated with working in that part of the world."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Army-shocked-at-PMs-Iraq-order/2005/02/23/1109046967612.html

[Cha]

1. Good Luck, Aussies!

Hope you can survive being over there in Iraq on the order of the monkey regime..lackey.

[rodeodance]

2. so why are they getting ready to go!!

[GetTheRightVote]

3. This is just an attempt to get them into Iran soon, back up soldiers

:kick:

[daleo]

4. A shame Australia re-elected the liar Howard. n/t

[autorank]

6. Uh, yes and "let the buyer beware." They could have tossed the guy...

...but like the British, they caved. Whereas, we, on the other hand elected...hey wait...well we did elect Kerry and then we let them steal it again.

[bling bling]

5. I'm not shocked.

They elected a guy whose policies are very Bush-esque. When you elect a guy like Bush, you get the kinds of policy and leadership that comes from guys like Bush. Buckle up Aussie's, our leaders are taking us all on a long scary ride.

[AgadorSparticus]

7. not surprised. they have faux down under and i'm sure the murdoch

tentacles reach pretty far.

[xchrom]

8. surprised?!?! what surprised?

uh yeah -- why don't i believe this -- what about howard didn't you get the first time around?

[Vidar]

9. Sorry, aussies, hope you eliminate the bastard soon.

[cal04]

10. Decision to send extra troops made at last minute, PM says

Prime Minister John Howard has revealed he was not persuaded until the last minute to send more Australian troops to Iraq. In an interview with the ABC's Lateline program, Mr Howard revealed the Federal Government finally agreed to sending an extra 450 troops to Iraq just weeks ago.

"It was only right towards the end that we, as a group of ministers, and then the national security committee, came to the view that we should make this contribution," he said. Mr Howard has all but confirmed that the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, rejected a British request for more troops on January 29.

"The British would not have had the impression from discussions with Mr Downer, that took place in London, that we were going to change our position," Mr Howard said.

Opposition spokesman for defence, Robert McClelland, says the decision to send more Australian soldiers to Iraq was rushed through for political purposes."It shows a botch decision made on the run for political purposes," he said. Mr McClelland says the deployment of more troops jeopardises the safety of Australian soldiers in Iraq.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1309632.htm

[AlCzervik]

11. I don't believe him at all, those extra troops he's sending

are replacing some of the troops that the Netherlands is withdrawing so Howard and Chimp made a deal awhile back.

[yinkaafrica]

12. What did we pay Howard for his soul?