And Obama's response
In response, Obama, a senator from Illinois, said: "I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced....I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr. Howard has deployed 1400, so if he is...to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq....Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."

By the way, I thought this was Blogs for Bush, not Blogs against Obama. Have you given up on President Bush? You seem to have more posts attacking Obama than reporting how well Bush is doing of late.

He might soon be available. It seems that Australians hate this war as much as we do. In fact, Howard's government is spending $19 million on a U.S. Studies Center to counter diminishing respect for America among Australians, nearly half of whom now have a negative view of our country.

I thought Obama's response was spot on. If Howard thinks Iraq is so critical to Australians stategic interests, let him send more of his people to fight it. We have fifteen times the population of Australia but we'll soon have 115 times as many boots on the ground in Iraq. We have also outspent Australia 250:1 on the war.

All of us should appreciate the fact that Australia stood with us in the aftermath of 9-11. But the fact that they followed us off a cliff in Iraq has left Howard as popular there as Bush is here, and seriously damaged our standing among Australians.

i already nominated howard at another blog today - may i double dip?

Why does John Howard hate America?

How dare Howard criticize any American political discussion on the war in Iraq? We have sacrificed 3100 lives and $500 billion on this war. He should keep his mouth shut, when talking about the Democratic Party lacking the will to fight a just war. The Democratic Party is the party of Roosevelt and Truman; enough said! He should worry about Australia instead of whether or not he is going to be invited to the next White House state dinner.

given that his own countrymen believe he may have lost his marbles, it would not surprise me if he had to make a quick exit from "diwn-undAH". not surprisingly, he's warmly embraced on by the B4B outliers.

But he's not an American, so how can his opinion matter. At least that was the general idea expressed to the Canadian commentor on a previous article.

You just want your side to win, and that's understandable. Undoubtedly, you feel your just doing what's best for America. Well, so do the Democrats. We just want our side to win, because we want what's best for America

Hurray for Howard for pointing out the double standard of Aussie left, whose definition of "interference" including mere criticism looks suspiciously like that of the Red Chinese.

if he defects from Australia, we got first dibs!

Sorry, Leo. Unless he was born in the U.S., we can't elect him president. Perhaps he'll have to settle for governor of California. On second thought, maybe not California. I don't think Howard has ever been an actor.

Please see the kind of thing obama has managed to stir up in the highly persuasive UK blogosphere

http://gweirdo.com/blog//index.php?blog=5&title=bush_u_turn_on_iraq&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

i just hope it isnt a case of, from small acrons.....

If Howard truly believe sin his rhetoric, what a dismal failure of leadership! This is the ultimate struggle to preserve civilization, and he can only get 1400 soldiers. if he truly believes our failure ould be catastrophic, isn't it possible that one could ask whether or not a few more Australians might have made the difference? Since failure presumably means Iraqis crossing the seas to start killing Americans and Australians here (cuz we didn't defeat them there), what will he say to the grieving? "well, it was the most important battle in human history, but I only sent 1400 people to fight."

There are over 900 Subway restaurants in Australia, so the country has considerably more people making sandwiches than fighting to preserve all that we hold dear.

This suggests either Howard doesn't care much about whehter or not freedom, civilization, and good dental hygiene survive, or he's spouting empty rhetoric. I suspect the latter.

To Mr. Noonan-

I remember in 2004 conservatives foaming at the mouth over the notion that foreign leaders had any say in our policy and/or any right to endorse Americans politicians in American politicians. Funny how that did a 180 now, huh?

PS- Obama must be a very formidable candidate if the right-wing blogs are going after him this hard. Good for him.

Well, if I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq I would say a daily prayer of thanks to Howard for only having 1,400 troops in Iraq.

Howard for all his faults deserves some credit. He did stand with us after 9/11. Glad to have allies like that.

All these posts are proof positive of what Howard was intimating.

You can have idiot "world leaders" from France, Iran and other countries criticizing Bush... and the liberals are quiet.

But get one that criticizes a democrat, and all of a sudden they come out of the woodwork, and start acting like they're some kind of patriots or something.

As Mr. Murphy says, "How bloody cheek" of them.

Oorah mister Howard!!! I always love to see a leader that bucks the typical hollywood/democrat politically correct(insane). Good for him, and thank you for being a strong ally & supporter of "VICTORY IN THE GWOT"!

He sure is getting hammered in the media for his comments.

For those bringing up the number of troops we have there, you have to keep in mind our small population and military. Also that we have troops in Afghanistan and in various countries surrounding us, so its not like we have an abundance of troops sitting around doing nothing...

We are standing with you in the fight against terrorism. Be grateful.