Henry... As I always expected! Our Army is controlled by cowards in the Cabinet. This desperate American request for the Australian soldiers in Iraq to start fighting has been rejected by the 'White Feathers' in our Cabinet. Our soldiers will not be embedded with the Iraqi soldiers just as John Howard refused to be personally embedded with Australian troops in Vietnam. What a shameful decision; how humiliating for our Army.

War is like marriage: if you are going to enter into either situation then you have to do the duties associated with such situations. I opposed our involvement in this lost war because I saw that we could not win; but once we are there, I am in favour of our soldiers fighting. There is nothing more humiliating for a soldier than to be not fighting when all around him other soldiers are doing the hard stuff. If I was in Iraq, as a civilian or a soldier, I couldn't look an American or a Pom in the eye; I would die of embarrassment every day.

This means nothing to the cowards in our Cabinet. None of them has served; none of them gives a rat's for soldiers or their situations. Our Army is used by this low government to help win seats in Parliament. Our much vaunted high esteem in Washington would now be worth mud after this despicable episode. The Americans are desperate to do something to avoid total defeat and we won't lift a finger because the Liberals are wetting themselves at the prospect of casualties and consequent electoral punishment. What else do soldiers suffer? What do you think is the actual price of victory?

How much more degradation does Australia have to suffer from these low rent zeroes in Canberra before we get a decent government?

Either get our Army out from Iraq immediately, or, if you want them to stay.... let them fight, God damn you, John Howard. Not every Australian is a coward.

Sir Wellington Boot.
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We spurn US on new Iraq role

EXCLUSIVE
Patrick Walters and Geoff Elliott

December 08, 2006

AUSTRALIA has turned down a request from the Bush administration to "embed" Australian army troops with Iraqi units as the US-led coalition moves to recast its military presence in the war-torn country.
The outgoing US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, first raised the issue of increased Australian involvement in training Iraqi forces with Defence Minister Brendan Nelson several months ago.

The Pentagon's proposal would involve placing small numbers of Australian soldiers in Iraqi units in a training role to help lift their overall operational capability.

Australia's 750-strong military presence already includes several dozen personnel embedded in the US-led coalition headquarters but no troops formally assigned to Iraqi units.

Dr Nelson responded to Mr Rumsfeld's letter by saying Australia's defence force was heavily committed in East Timor and the South Pacific and also engaged ina long-term expansion of its own army.

But Mr Rumsfeld wrote again to Dr Nelson late last month urging him to reconsider the "embed" idea - which would put Australian troops in so-called "Iraqi military transition teams" - and stressing the value of Australia's military contribution in Iraq.

Pentagon sources stressed that Mr Rumsfeld, who steps down as defence secretary this week, did not ask Australia to commit more troops to Iraq beyond the existing level.

Dr Nelson declined to comment to The Australian yesterday on the substance of hiscorrespondence with Mr Rumsfeld. Early last month, shortly before his resignation, Mr Rumsfeld told the White House in a memo the strategy in Iraq was "not working well enough or fast enough".

Cabinet's national security committee discussed Australia's future military role in Iraq earlier this week but decided to reject the US request.

Both the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, and the Pentagon's own internal review have recommended the primary focus shift to training of Iraqi forces through extra "embedding" of coalition troops.

The Baker-Hamilton report, handed to the White House yesterday, has recommended that up to 20,000 US troops be embedded with Iraqi units - a fourfold increase on current numbers.

The report described the situation in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating" but stressed it would be wrong for the US to abandon the country, warning that al-Qa'ida would view withdrawal as "a historic victory".

Senior Australian government sources said last night there was little enthusiasm for the "embed" proposal put forward by Washington, but no final decisions had been taken.

The safety and security of small numbers of Australian troops who may serve with Iraqi units are at the heart of the Government's lukewarm response to the idea.