Ben Cousins returned to Perth today, and had a Christmas message for the journalists who have reported his appalling drug fueled antics. He wishes they would be run over by a bus. It doesn't yet seem to have occurred to Cousins that his selfish behavior might have cost the life of a close friend and ended his career. It will almost certainly end the life of a copycat fan and probably his own.
Meanwhile, onto other worthless beings, Rudd has gone to Iraq to obfuscate his message. 'combat' troops will be home by next Christmas. If they consider Jordan to be their home. Support troops will stay. This has been labelled as Rudd keeping his election promise to .. well, he didn't actually have to make any, but many believed he meant to pull all Australians from Iraq. It is never easy trying to be all things to all people. Anyone who heard the message, and didn't understand it, should be comforted. Those who believe that Australia still has a role to play in Iraq's future will be pleased that the empty gesture doesn't completely curtail that hope.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Rudd Obfuscates From Iraq
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Rudd in surprise Afghanistan visit
from news.com.au
AUSTRALIA is in Afghanistan for the "long haul", Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on a surprise visit to the country, which is battling an intensifying insurgency led by Taliban extremists.
Rudd held talks with President Hamid Karzai hours after French President Nicolas Sarkozy also made an unannounced visit to meet his soldiers with a NATO-led force of nearly 40 nations helping to fight extremism.
"One of the messages I delivered to His Excellency the president today is that Australia is here in Afghanistan for a long haul," Mr Rudd said.
"Over the next several months, I would also be encouraging other friends and partners and allies in NATO to continue their commitments to this country and where possible extend them," he said.
Australia has denied media reports last weekend that it would keep its nearly 900 troops in Afghanistan longer than the scheduled end of their mission in August next year, saying no decision had been made yet.
But Mr Rudd's Labor Party has "indicated for some time that they would consider further reasonable requests for military assistance in Afghanistan," a spokeswoman said.
The prime minister, on his first visit here since being elected last month, said he had visited Australian troops based in the south-central province of Uruzgan before arriving in the capital, Kabul.
Mr Karzai thanked Australia for its reconstruction and security work in the province, one of Afghanistan's most volatile and a former stronghold of Taliban extremists.
Rudd said bringing security to Uruzgan was a challenge that could achieved.
"I'm confident our forces in partnership with our friends in the Afghan National Army, we'll achieve further success in future in securing that important province for long-term stability," he said.
The Australian troops in Uruzgan work alongside a deployment of 1650 soldiers from the Netherlands in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which numbers more than 40,000 troops in all.
The Dutch government announced last month it would extend its mission until December 2010. It had been due to expire in August 2008.
This year has been the bloodiest in an insurgency launched soon after the Taliban were removed from power in late 2001 for harbouring al-Qaida.
Daily newspaper The Australian reported Monday that Rudd's new government had warned NATO and its allies that they would lose the war against hardline Taliban forces unless they urgently changed tactics.
The United States has also announced that a review is under way.
Mr Karzai has been calling for more focus on militant bases outside of Afghanistan, notably in Pakistan, while there has been increased emphasis this year on training the Afghani forces and promoting reconciliation.
France's Mr Sarkozy said during his six-hour visit that the international effort to rid the country of extremism could not afford to fail.
"It is absolutely necessary that Afghanistan does not become a state which falls in the hands of terrorists, as we saw with the Taliban," he said.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi is also expected to visit in the coming days.
A NATO summit in Bucharest in April is set to review efforts to help Afghanistan end the insurgency and establish democracy.
Prime Minister makes surprise visit to Iraq
By Maria Hawthorne
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has made a surprise Christmas visit to Australia's remaining combat troops in Iraq - promising them they will be home well before next year's festive season.
In a top-secret lightning trip, the new Prime Minister also visited his Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki, US coalition commander David Petraeus and US ambassador Ryan Crocker to explain his government's plan to end its combat deployment once the current rotation ends in June.
About 1000 Australian troops will remain in Baghdad and in the Gulf to protect dignitaries and oil rigs, although a decision on the future of the Baghdad-based contingent will be made later this year.
But the 550 soldiers in the Overwatch Battle Group based at Tallil can expect to be home by August, once their deployment ends and the task of packing up their camp is finished.
Mr Rudd, who flew to Tallil with defence force chief Angus Houston and Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, told the soldiers he would honour his election promise to bring them home, but not before their job was done.
"You here, as part of this battle group, will be the last battle group we deploy," Mr Rudd said.
"I'm here to say to you that you will complete your task and you will be returning home to Australia at the completion of this rotation in June."
Mr Rudd said all those who had served in Iraq had done a fantastic job and he urged them to complete their task with the professionalism and the tradition of the ADF.
The withdrawal would begin on June 1, but the logistics of closing down the camp would take one or two months, he said.
He acknowledged that some soldiers would be disappointed, particularly those who started their tour only two or four weeks ago, but said he was keeping a promise to voters.
"This rotation will conclude, as I said prior to the election to the President of the United States, to the Vice-President of the United States, that's what I said to the Australian people, that's what I'm committed to do and that's what I'm gunna do," Mr Rudd said.
His visit was such a tightly held secret that even the soldiers did not know who was arriving, with one joking that he had been hoping for Kylie Minogue.
But the mostly Queensland contingent gave the Prime Minister a warm reception on a chilly Iraq morning, with the ancient Sumerian pyramid, the Ziggurat of Ur, faintly visible in the distance through the haze.
"I'm from Queensland too so let's hear it for Queensland," Mr Rudd urged to a resounding cheer from the assembled soldiers, prompting Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon to interject "Go the Blues".
The flak-jacket-wearing PPrime Minister said the troops were true representatives of the Anzac spirit, forged 90 years ago during the charge of Beersheeba - "desert plains in ancient Palestine" - as they carried out their tasks in the desert plains of ancient Mesopotamia.
"Here, today, and here in this country Iraq, this war-torn country, you have been doing great and good work," Mr Rudd said.
"I can say to you as Prime Minister and as the leader of the Government that we, the Australian nation, thank you - thank you for the professionalism and the distinction with which you have discharged your duties.
"Our simple purpose in coming here in the lead-up to Christmas is one thing - and that is to thank you one and all for your service."
Mr Rudd, whose father and brother both served in the defence forces, sympathised with the troops for being separated from family and friends at Christmas, saying he knew how hard it could be.
"Our hope, our prayer, and our ambition as government of the country is for each and every one of you to be delivered safe and sound to your families at the end of this mission, and that is my responsibility as well," he said.
He took questions from assembled soldiers, promising to look into some missing winter clothing yet to arrive despite near freezing night-time temperatures, clarifying how soon after June 1 they could expect to be home and outlining what would happen to their training program for Iraqi security forces once they left.
The Australians have trained about 25,000 Iraqis to train local police and soldiers over the past four years, and hope to take the number to 30,000 before they leave.
Mr Rudd said the embedded troops would take over the training program after June, while Australia would look at another training program, perhaps in Australia or in a third country like Jordan, from the end of the year.
He defended Labor's past record on defence funding in office against accusations it had stripped the military budget, and promised to maintain the Howard government's commitment to a three per cent annual increase in real funding.
But it was a cheeky question from a Queenslander that brought the house down.
"What's going on with Ipswich Rd?" a Brisbanite asked.
"Anyone who accuses Queenslanders of being parochial has just got it wrong," Mr Rudd replied, before assuring him that the state and federal governments had announced plans for a major upgrade of the busy thoroughfare three weeks ago.
Regarding ALP's activity for Afghanistan. The problem, as I see it, is that the ALP have made an election promise without commitment over the issue of the Middle East. There was a false dichotomy made regarding Iraq and Afghanistan and Rudd cannot keep his promise with troop numbers because the allies, like the US, want them allocated appropriately, not to Rudd's agenda. So money has to be given to highlight the difference in policy.
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