So says the BBC, but then those heathen pinko commies would, wouldn’t they? But seriously, high ranking government officials aren’t usually so honest about such things.

Incredible

John Howard, aussie PM says in response to Barack Obama’s pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq if he should win the Democrat nomination and then win the US Presidential election:

Mr Howard said Mr Obama’s stance on Iraq “will just encourage those who want to completely destabilise and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory”.

Barack Obama fires back:

“I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops on the ground now, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1,400, so if he is (ready) to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq.”

Hmmmm, something tells me John Howard wasn’t expecting a response like that. You’re not dealing with W.

“The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership” – George W Bush

You’ll need to be registered at Salon to view this article, but here are some points I found particularly interesting:

More urgently, the Bush administration’s delusional state about the progress of its war suggests that it is incompetent to safeguard the nation’s security.

and

The Sunni Arabs, who largely did not vote, have only 17 members in the 275-seat parliament. They therefore are grossly underrepresented among the voting delegates on the committee charged with writing a new constitution, a situation that has contributed to the ongoing insurgency and threatens Iraq’s future. The Shiites and Kurds both voted enthusiastically. The Shiite religious parties that had been close to Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian hard-liners swept to power in the Legislature.

and

As journalist Sarah Whalen pointed out in the Arab News, the increasingly effective guerrilla war has vindicated Baghdad Bob. “Baghdad Bob” (his real name was Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf) was the spokesman for the Iraqi regime who issued an endless stream of ludicrous pronouncements about how the mighty Iraq army was turning Baghdad into a mass grave for Americans, and so on. Today, many of his predictions, such as the one that the Iraqis would hurl “bullets and shoes” at the invading U.S. military, not bouquets of roses, have come true. But if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Sahhaf has been honored on a higher plane. His rhetorical strategy, of simply denying reality, has now been taken over by his arch-nemesis, George W. Bush.