FROG PILE:

Howard joins attack on French (AAP, March 14 2003)

Prime Minister John Howard today launched a blistering attack on France as he hit the airwaves to sell his case for war against Iraq, a day after his nationally televised address.

The Bush administration backed down overnight from its demands that the latest UN resolution on Iraqi disarmament be voted on by tomorrow but Mr Howard supported the move and denied the US was treading water.

Instead, he blamed France for destroying any hope of peacefully disarming Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, echoing the sentiments of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"We won't achieve that peaceful disarmament if we continue to have spoiling tactics from say the French, who appear intent on saying no to everything irrespective of its merit," Mr Howard told the Nine Network.

"I think it's regrettable that the spoiling role some countries have played have made that kind of outcome quite unlikely, next to impossible."

He said France has always regretted the rise of the United States as the pre-eminent world power and the fact that Europe was no longer as powerful in relation to the United States as it used to be.

So it's the Anglosphere vs. Iraq, France, Germany, Russia, China, Bill Clinton, etc. Who are you betting on?

MORE:
Analysis: Australia's military role in Iraq (Jonathan Marcus, 3/14/03, BBC)

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2003 8:48 PM