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Australian PM says he will never regret joining war in Iraq
Sydney, Jan 26: Australian Prime Minister John Howard today said he would never regret his decision to join the US-led coalition of the willing that invaded Iraq last year.
Sydney, Jan 26: Australian Prime Minister John Howard today said he would never regret his decision to join the US-led coalition of the willing that invaded Iraq last year.
He also expected the search for weapons of mass destruction to continue in Iraq despite nine months of search revealing nothing and the US administration suggesting none were there in the first place.
"I do not regret it, I do not retreat from it and I never will," Howard told reporters after a ceremony marking the National Australia Day public holiday in Canberra.
"I don't apologise for what we did, it was in our view the right thing to have done based on the intelligence that was available. That intelligence was not manipulated by the government and I stand by completely what we did," the Australian PM said.
His remarks followed a statement by the former top US weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay, that he believed Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Kay said the challenge for the United States now was to figure out why intelligence indicated that the Iraqi President did have them.
Howard said if his government had followed the advice of its critics in the Labour opposition and elsewhere, Saddam Hussein would still be in power running Iraq.
Howard, one of US President George Bush's strongest allies, led Australia into joining the United States and Britain in the war in Iraq, citing the threat of weapons of mass destruction allegedly held by Iraq. Bureau Report
"I do not regret it, I do not retreat from it and I never will," Howard told reporters after a ceremony marking the National Australia Day public holiday in Canberra.
"I don't apologise for what we did, it was in our view the right thing to have done based on the intelligence that was available. That intelligence was not manipulated by the government and I stand by completely what we did," the Australian PM said.
His remarks followed a statement by the former top US weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay, that he believed Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Kay said the challenge for the United States now was to figure out why intelligence indicated that the Iraqi President did have them.
Howard said if his government had followed the advice of its critics in the Labour opposition and elsewhere, Saddam Hussein would still be in power running Iraq.
Howard, one of US President George Bush's strongest allies, led Australia into joining the United States and Britain in the war in Iraq, citing the threat of weapons of mass destruction allegedly held by Iraq. Bureau Report