Stay the course in Iraq: US envoy: [3 All-round Metro Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 07 Dec 2006: 4.
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Abstract
AUSTRALIA'S involvement in the Iraq war is up for debate as next year's federal election approaches -- but withdrawal would be a disaster, US ambassador Robert McCallum declared yesterday in his most expansive statement on Canberra's commitment to the conflict.
"The potential consequences of failure in Iraq are so damaging in multiple areas, including the east Asian and Pacific Island region, that there is no responsible choice but to continue the search for a longer-term solution -- a resolution that not only keeps faith with the Iraqi people but one that also protects the values on which our own societies, and futures, rest," Mr McCallum said.
AUSTRALIA'S involvement in the Iraq war is up for debate as next year's federal election approaches -- but withdrawal would be a disaster, US ambassador Robert McCallum declared yesterday in his most expansive statement on Canberra's commitment to the conflict.
Speaking at a function hosted by the Committee for Sydney business advocacy group, Mr McCallum, who took up his post in August, said he wanted to promote debate about the consequences of abandoning the Iraqi people to the forces of international terrorism, sectarian violence and social chaos.
"The potential consequences of failure in Iraq are so damaging in multiple areas, including the east Asian and Pacific Island region, that there is no responsible choice but to continue the search for a longer-term solution -- a resolution that not only keeps faith with the Iraqi people but one that also protects the values on which our own societies, and futures, rest," Mr McCallum said.
The ambassador launched a broadside against fundamentalist Islam, saying Iraq was the central battleground between the West and states that promoted "suppression of all diverse views and interpretations of individual rights and freedoms".
He said that three years after the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi Government had been unable to achieve domestic stability, but thefundamental motives of the US and Australian governments had not faltered.
"The goal remains the same, and that goal is not to stay in Iraq one day longer than is required to provide a capacity for the Iraqi Government and the Iraqi people that will allow them to defend their own domestic tranquillities and allow them to reap the benefits of a democratic government," he said.
Acknowledging that the short-term situation in Iraq was difficult, Mr McCallum said Australia had stuck with the US during the Korean conflict in the early 1950s and the result more than half a century later was a "strong, democratic and prosperous South Korea, an ally and friend".
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