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02-21-2008, 05:10 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Resident Mythbuster
Senior Contributor
Join Date: 01-07-06
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
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Australia confirms Iraq troop withdrawal
Australia confirms Iraq troop withdrawal, pledges strong US ties - Yahoo! Canada News
Quote:
Australia confirms Iraq troop withdrawal, pledges strong US ties
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's new government confirmed Thursday that it would withdraw its combat troops from Iraq by mid-year but pledged strong ties with the United States ahead of landmark talks this week.
The withdrawal was promised during the campaign for elections last November which saw US President George W. Bush's close ally John Howard ousted by centre-left Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Australia's 550-strong battlegroup in southern Iraq would be pulled out in close consultation with the United States and Britain to minimise disruption, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.
The withdrawal will be on the agenda when Smith and Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon meet US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte for security talks in Canberra on Saturday.
It will be the first time the annual Australia-US Ministerial consultation, known as AUSMIN, has been hosted by Rudd's Labor government.
Both countries have been at pains to stress that the change of government in Australia and its withdrawal of troops from Iraq will not harm relations between them.
The pull-out "in no way disturbs the fundamental nature of our alliance relationship," Smith told parliament.
The security talks would "underline the fundamental importance and the long-term enduring nature of the alliance relationship between Australia and the United States."
The alliance was part of Australia's indispensable strategic, security and defence arrangements and transcended changes in government in either country, he said.
"All the assessments are that the military situation in Iraq has substantially improved over the last recent period of twelve months or so," Smith told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation earlier.
"Of course Labor always had the strong view that we shouldn't have been there in the first place and we came to government with a very strong election commitment that we would withdraw our troops from Iraq by the middle of this year and we will meet that election commitment," he said.
"It doesn't occur on one day -- it's a big logistical operation to put troops in and it's a big logistical operation to get them out."
Australia will still have about 1,000 military personnel in and around Iraq, including a 110-strong security detachment in Baghdad. It will also have personnel for Hercules and Orion aircraft based outside Iraq as well as a warship in the Gulf.
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__________________
 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9)
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02-21-2008, 18:03 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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Senior Contributor
Join Date: 05-12-05
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ShipWreck, Your take on this?
__________________
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
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02-21-2008, 18:40 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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Resident Mythbuster
Senior Contributor
Join Date: 01-07-06
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
Country:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnought
ShipWreck, Your take on this?
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The Aussies no longer need an exit strategy...  |
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