On 29 January, I posted about my support for Barack Obama‘s US Presidential possibilities… and wrote about the funky smell of government terrorism hype on 7 Feb… and by 11 February, John HoWARd was saying ‘a vote for Obama is a vote for Osama.’ Whoa. My political ‘spidey sense’ is spot-on.
First of all, as an American voter, let me take this juicy opportunity to castigate HoWARd for his interference in the party politics of another country. It wasn’t that long ago that Australian pollies were whacking then-US Ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer in the shins for his unwelcome critiques of potential Australian Labor party policy on Iraq. Hypocrites.
Much to his credit, Obama put HoWARd right into the perspective he deserves:
“I think it’s flattering that one of George Bush’s allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced [my candidacy],” Senator Obama said.
“I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1,400.
“So if he is ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq, otherwise it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.”
