Mixed media: Australians in the firing line

Principled decision

AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER: Howard's decision to send an additional 450 to 470 Australian troops to Iraq sits squarely in the traditions of Australian strategic policy. It is right in principle and effective globally, regionally and for Australia. It is right in principle because only the terrorists - groups who wish our utter destruction - could benefit from the coalition of the willing abandoning Iraq before it can provide for its own security, and while vital and necessary reconstruction work is still undone.

* Greg Sheridan in The Australian

JAPANESE WELCOME: "The Japanese Government greatly appreciates, welcomes, and rates highly" the Australian dispatch of troops to Muthana, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura echoed Hosoda's view, saying in a statement that the planned dispatch of Australian troops to Muthana is encouraging.

* Japan Today

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTER: I think one of the Government's motivations in doing this is to try to get the Americans and British off their backs in terms of pressure to supply more troops for Iraq. So, I think the Government will be hoping that, you know, sending these 450 will basically buy them some time.

* Aldo Borgu of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on ABC Online

MELBOURNE REPORT: Army commanders expect to be besieged by soldiers wanting to be posted to Iraq, despite the danger of attack by insurgents, a military chief says. Many of the troops will be from the 1st Brigade in Darwin and Brigadier John Cantwell, commander of the 1st Brigade, said there would be no shortage of soldiers keen to go. He said of the mood at Darwin's Robertson Barracks: "It's a great sense of anticipation and a lot of people wanting to be selected to carry out this mission."

* Melbourne Age

Abuse of truth

CRITICAL COMMENTATOR: So how does Howard justify his latest abuse of the truth? First, he says circumstances in Iraq have changed since the election. Well, the truth is that circumstances in Iraq have been constantly changing since the invasion in March 2003.

If his underlying argument is that particular changes in those circumstances would have warranted a change in Australia's force posture in Iraq, then he should have said so all along. The reason he didn't was to convey to the Australian people that our commitment was winding down. He knew precisely what he was doing.

* Kevin Rudd in The Australian

SYDNEY VIEW: The Prime Minister, John Howard, has plunged Australia into a new divisive national debate over Iraq after federal cabinet decided to more than double the nation's existing deployment of ground troops to the turbulent country.

Labor opposed the increased commitment, charging the Coalition with dramatically reversing its position of the past two years that Australia would not send significantly more troops.

Mr Howard conceded the US and the British military had been pressing Australia for some time to lift its troop commitments in Iraq, because "they have been carrying a very significant load".

* Sydney Morning Herald

LABOR FEARS: The Government has never stated its mission in Iraq. We seem to be getting swept along with the tide. We have never stated what our objective is, when that objective's going to be satisfied and when we can get out.

The Government is just really reacting here. It's not doing this with any forward planning, any forethought, indeed any discussion with our regional partners as to what the consequences are going to be in our region, and there is a real risk that we're going to be sucked into the quagmire of a civil war.

* Labor's Defence Spokesman, Robert McClelland on ABC Online

IRAQI BLOGGER: When the first Australian soldier was killed a couple of weeks ago, I wrote an open letter to the Aussies asking them to put more pressure on their Government to pull out their military forces from Iraq. I really believe it is the time for all the fake international military presence in Iraq to end, and it is the time to expose the illegal Bush-Blair occupation. But for (Iraqi minister) Adnan al Janabi, naaaaaaahh.

What did I read in the same day?Al-Janabi talking again!! Giving the Australian Government the best cover for keeping their occupying forces in Iraq, and not just that, but asking them to add more forces!!!!

* Raedin in the middle