So much for a quiet, drawn-out presidential campaign. As nice as it was to think people could declare, and then begin to present themselves and their ideas to the American public, it obviously isn’t going to happen that way.
It wasn’t a domestic opponent, though, that abruptly (and prematurely) turned up the fire; it was John Howard, Australia’s prime minister (NY Times) :
Mr. Howard, a conservative leader who is a close ally of the White House, denounced Mr. Obama’s proposal to withdraw American combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008. In a television interview in Australia, Mr. Howard said the senator’s redeployment plan would simply inspire insurgent violence in Iraq.
“If I were running Al Qaeda in Iraq,” Mr. Howard said, “I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.”
Odd as it is that the leader of a country on the other side of the planet would weigh in with such vehemence at this stage of the game, Obama’s response is kicking off its own little firestorm:
Mr. Obama said Australia had sent 1,400 troops to Iraq, a fraction of the American force.
“If he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq,” Mr. Obama said. “Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.”
In terms of population, of course, comparing the numbers of American and Australian troops is rather an apple:orange (or grapefruit). Yes, we have proportionately more troops in Iraq than does Australia, but not by this large a margin. Furthermore,however out of order Howard was, Australia is a very close American ally, and a more experienced individual might have been a tad more tactful when wording a response.
But perhaps only a tad, because while Obama is coming under fire for these statements, beneath the words themselves is something that has been bothering Polimom for quite a long time.
Had we had more support in Iraq, would this situation be such an unmitigated disaster?
If all the countries (however few they were) that originally thought Iraq was seriously a threat had thrown themselves fully into the effort, or if the countries that see things unravelling before their eyes and espouse anguish and concern for the Iraqi people cared enough to help, I suspect things would look radically different now.
It’s been quite a long time since we’ve talked about why it was important to have a consensus, but while Australia may not be the right target for this frustration, I don’t think the sentiment itself is invalid.