Fed: PM says Iraq going badly

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2006
Fed: PM says Iraq going badly

CANBERRA, Dec 8 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard has admitted things are going badly
in Iraq and he would like Australia to be out as soon as possible.

However, he said Australia's exit strategy would be to leave when the coalition was
satisfied Iraq was able to look after itself.

Asked if Australia would go along with any US withdrawal of forces, he said it had
to be remembered that the US had 100 times more troops in Iraq than Australia.

"I would like to be out of Iraq as soon as possible. But I am not going to make myself
in any way hostage to a particular date.

"The exit strategy is to go when the coalition is satisfied that the country can reasonably
look after itself.

"It's governed by the conditions in the country. It's governed by the Americans. The
British are obviously the next largest contributor, but still a force that is less than
one twentieth of the American contribution."

The report of the Iraq Study Group, headed by former US Secretary of State James Baker
and former congressman Lee Hamilton, said US strategy for Iraq had failed and proposed
a progressive withdrawal of forces.

Mr Howard said US President George W Bush had not made himself hostage to any particular
withdrawal date.

But he said there would be changes in American policy.

"Of that I'm certain after the discussions I had with President Bush in Hanoi and later
on in Ho Chi Minh city," he said.

"I believe the biggest single change will be that they will require the Iraqis to do
a lot more and that is a good thing."

Mr Howard said Mr Bush would like to be out as soon as it was responsible to leave.

"He is not putting a date on it. In none of the discussions I had with him, and I had
two separate discussions with him in Vietnam, did he commit to a date," he said.

"Everybody would like to be out as soon as possible. We all know it is going badly.

"But we all know and Baker and Hamilton underlined this, that a precipitate American
withdrawal would create a real bloodbath and total chaos and Baker and Hamilton made that
perfectly clear and George Bush is not going to embrace that approach."

AAP mb/sb/sp/it/bwl

KEYWORD: IRAQ HOWARD

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