DAR AL HARB - AUSTRALIA: "IRAQ IS THE GREATEST POLICY SINCE VIETNAM"

'Iraq greatest policy mistake since Vietnam'

LABOR has accused Prime Minister John Howard of presiding over the greatest failure of Australia's national security interests since Vietnam, through its involvement in Iraq.

Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said today the conflict had killed 600,000 Iraqis while pushing their country towards civil war, jeopardising global oil supplies and emboldening Iraq's hostile neighbour Iran.

As a "magnet, inspiration and training ground for international jihadists'', the Iraq war had also boosted Australia up the ranks of countries targeted by terrorism, Mr Rudd said in a speech to the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

"Militant Islamism is ... fanned by the continuation of the Iraq war, more than four years after 'mission accomplished' had been prematurely declared (by US President George W Bush),'' Mr Rudd said.

"The uncomfortable fact for Australia is that we have now become a greater terrorist target as a consequence of our military involvement in Iraq, a fact acknowledged by many experts in the field.

"There are many inconvenient truths facing the Howard government, but one of the most inconvenient is the fact that Mr Howard's decision to participate in the invasion of Iraq is nothing less than the greatest failure of Australia's national security interests since Vietnam.''

Mr Rudd said Mr Howard had boosted Australia's troop numbers despite pledging before the last election not to do so, while Labor's policy was for a phased withdrawal of troops - in negotiation with US forces - as their six-month rotations came to a close.

He also reaffirmed Labor's support for continued Australian troop deployment in Afghanistan, saying this was in keeping with the nation's mutual defence treaty with America.

"The ANZUS alliance was activated as a consequence of al-Qaeda's attack on the United States back in 2001,'' Mr Rudd said.

"The provisions of the treaty go to our requirement to respond to one another if the metropolitan territory of one or the other ... is attacked.

"That forms the basis of our continuing participation in that conflict (and is) something that we continue as the Labor Party to support and would do so in government.''

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Pertinent Links:

1) 'Iraq greatest policy mistake since Vietnam'