Fed: Howard should announce Iraq medal on Anzac Day: Labor

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2004
Fed: Howard should announce Iraq medal on Anzac Day: Labor

CANBERRA, April 21 AAP - Labor has called for Prime Minister John Howard to mark Anzac
Day by announcing a medal for Australian troops who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and
the Persian Gulf.

Labor parliamentary secretary Graham Edwards said Anzac Day would be a fitting time
to honour the professional and courageous service troops had given.

Britain and the United States have both struck campaign medals for their forces.

"The men and women of Australia's defence forces, who have done so much to further
the spirit of Anzac, deserve to have their service recognised in the same way," Mr Edwards,
a Vietnam veteran, said in a statement.

"The prime minister should heed the lessons following Vietnam and understand that recognition
delayed is recognition denied."

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Mark Latham said the Dominican Republic's decision to
follow Spain and Honduras in pulling its troops out of Iraq did not affect Labor's policy
to bring Australian troops home by Christmas if it won this year's election.

"Labor doesn't make policy according to what these other countries are doing," Mr Latham
told Southern Cross Radio.

"We've had a stance 18 months ago where we've never seen a long-term military involvement
for Australia in Iraq.

"Australia has played a role but you've got to have an exit strategy as we did in Afghanistan
and we think that's feasible for the end of the year."

Mr Latham said a British military commander's comments that coalition troops might
have to stay in Iraq for another 10 years were frightening.

"Ten years ... is just way out of control," he told the John Laws radio show.

"Are we going to play a 10-year role, a decade-long role managing ethnic and religious
and nationalistic tensions in Iraq? That's not the best use of Australia's military capacity.

"We've got other priorities here and the region, obviously for the defence of Australia
in the real war against terrorism.

"If Australia had unlimited military resources it might be a different story but you've
actually got to make some choices and set some priorities."

He said Mr Howard had confused the issue by saying that air traffic controllers training
civilians in Baghdad might not return home next month as planned.

"They were scheduled to come back next month and now there's uncertainty about that
because the prime minister has said that everyone's there indefinitely," Mr Latham said.

"This is the sort of confusion that we've got to end. Labor's got an exit strategy,
we think it's feasible to have them back by Christmas.

"We're not deserting Iraq, we want to contribute humanitarian and economic aid but
we've just got a different set of priorities for the best place to deploy our military."

AAP mfh/sw/cmc/tnf

KEYWORD: IRAQ AUST LABOR

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