US 'meddling in Australian vote'

[cal04]

Australia's main opposition party has accused the US of meddling in upcoming elections by criticising plans to withdraw troops from Iraq if it wins. Labor president Carmen Lawrence said she believed the Bush administration was trying to help conservative Prime Minister John Howard win the election.

Australian voters do not like being told how to conduct themselves by other governments, she added. President Bush has said an Australian withdrawal would be "disastrous". His comments earlier this month have been echoed by other White House officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"It's a bit unseemly for American senior officials to be telling an opposition in this country how to conduct its affairs and what its policies should be," she told Channel Nine Television. "Australians are a proud people and don't much like being told how to conduct themselves by other governments."

Opposition leader Mark Latham has vowed to pull the 800 troops from Iraq by Christmas if he wins. Mr Bush said such action, "would say that the Australian Government doesn't see the hope of a free and democratic society leading to a peaceful world."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3802247.stm

[LittleApple81]

1. BWAHAHAHAHA....now we are going after the whities that try

to exert their freedom of choice!
The US arrogance and stupidity have no end in sight.

[MuseRider]

2. A bit unseemly?

Yes, I would say so but oh so typical.

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. Now he's trying to be the

DICTATOR of Australia?? I so hope the opposition party wins and tells the chimp to go to hell!

[MoonRiver]

4. Australia needs to do a Spain on Howard, and *.

At least they have honest elections, I believe. But if * is allowed to keep meddling, that will soon be a thing of the past. This is (was?) the neocon dream, to dominate the US political system and have puppet regimes all over the world to do our bidding.

Save yourself Australia, before it's too late, for both of us! :scared:

[Spazito]

5. It is just another example of how delusional the bush admin is...

anyone with one eye and half an asshole knows that threatening the voters in another country in order to support a puppet is likely to have the reverse effect. That bubble that bush lives in must contain some heavy pychotropic drugs.

[Solon]

6. Wouldn't be the First time...

1975

Australia — The CIA helps topple the democratically elected, left-leaning government of Prime Minister Edward Whitlam. The CIA does this by giving an ultimatum to its Governor-General, John Kerr. Kerr, a longtime CIA collaborator, exercises his constitutional right to dissolve the Whitlam government. The Governor-General is a largely ceremonial position appointed by the Queen; the Prime Minister is democratically elected. The use of this archaic and never-used law stuns the nation.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I've never heard about this ultimatem...

I know that the Whitlam govt had at one point turned its attention to Pine Gap, which probably shat off the Americans no end, but I'm a bit doubtful about what sort of role, if any, the CIA played in the dismissal of the Whitlam govt. I always thought what led to it was two shonky by-elections which resulted in the Opposition having control of the Senate, which then led to the Senate blocking Supply, which led to the by then hostile relationship between Whitlam and Kerr coming to a head...

Violet...