Monday, July 23, 2007
AGAINST WITHDRAWAL BEFORE HE WAS FOR IT
Kevin Rudd, 2003:
Australia today is conjointly responsible for ensuring the security, health, food, shelter and clothing for 20 million Iraqis. That’s what Occupying Powers do. Put simply, if you invade a country, you get to run it afterwards until an Iraqi government takes over. And that is a long way off ...
Our view is that whatever people’s views before the war might have been, the fate of 20 million Iraqis now depends on the Occupying Powers and the UN cooperating in a fundamental way to ensure that Iraq does have a future.
Kevin Rudd, 2007:
Mr Rudd says the presence of Australian combat forces in the Middle East is making the country a target for terrorists.
He says the Government should be willing to discuss a negotiated exit strategy from Iraq.
He’s a flexible fellow, our Kevni. Last October he believed some 50,000 Iraqis had died in the war; lately he’s upgraded that to a Lancet-approved 600,000. The Labor leader is also impressively bendy on the subject of Saddam’s weapons.