Petraeus Attempts To Manipulate Australian Election With False Claims About Iraq
Petraeus Attempts To Manipulate Australian Election With False Claims About Iraq
On Monday, President Bush will visit Australia to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. The White House is using the trip to try to influence the Australian election, where Bush’s good friend John Howard is pitted in a contest against Labor leader Kevin Rudd.
Howard was an early supporter of the Iraq invasion and has remained one of Bush’s few solid foreign allies. Prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Howard weighed in, claiming a Bush reelection was needed in order to “stay and finish the job” in Iraq.
Now, the Iraq war is dragging down Howard’s chances of being reelected. 57 percent of Australians want to end the war. Rudd, who leads the Labor Party, has “made it clear he will withdraw the Australian combat forces from Iraq by the middle of next year.” Recent polls indicate Labor leads Howard’s coalition by 14 points. Howard has yet to set a date for the election, but it is expected to occur later this year.
The White House appears to be using Gen. David Petraeus as a PR flack to assist Howard’s reelection effort. Petraeus offered a one-on-one interview with The Australian, timed to coincide with Bush’s visit. In the interview, Petraeus said Bush’s Iraq strategy is working:
General Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year.
The Australian reports, “In a general sense, this success will help the Howard Government.” But as numerous reports have indicated, these claims of success are specious. Sectarian and ethnic killings remain very high, running at almost double the rate of last year.
Dennis Shanahan, the Australian reporter who spoke with Petraeus, said there were attacks directed at the U.S. embassy during the interview. “So for [Petraeus] to be talking there about security in Iraq, there was a certain irony attached,” Shanahan said.
For his contribution, Bush granted an interview to Australian Sky News to laud Howard as “a man of steel.” Bush “refused to accept” that his key Iraq ally was heading to defeat.
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55 Responses to “Petraeus Attempts To Manipulate Australian Election With False Claims About Iraq”
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I think Bush would do well to keep his distance if he wants Howard to stand a chance.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:38 pmAustralian Sky News = Rupert Murdoch
The Australian = Rupert Murdoch
Small world, eh.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:39 pmBush “refused to accept†that his key Iraq ally was heading to defeat.
Of course he did. Dry Drunk Denial syndrome, affects every facet of the chymp’s behavior.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:39 pmHe’ll be in denial in Jan 09, after the Dems take both houses of Congress with veto proof majorities, and his Democratic successor is sworn in.
Thank goodness for John Howard.
He’s a great man.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:39 pmHoward is toast.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:40 pmIf they lie to the American People, its sure not surprising they’d lie to another country.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:41 pmLooks like Howard will have lots of time for a walkabout.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:44 pmFaiz, Ask Howard Dean about polls four months out……I have a feeling Howard will be re-elected when Aussies consider their national security and wallets.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:44 pmThe way Toilet Paper hate-site framed its article, it’s clear that malignant, blackened hatred for the US military is widespread and omnipotent in the minds of progressives. Look at the demeaning words/phrases TP used to describe Petraeus: flack and attempt to manipulate. Toilet Paper hate-site–proving my accusation that progressives don’t hate US policy or just Bush, but really the US military itself–is derogating Petraeus (mind you, someone even Dems supposedly respect) as nothing more than a lapdog of Bush who reinforces his propaganda. Such disrespect towards the military is totally provocative, especially considering there’s no sane evidence to even support TP’s allegation that the WH put forth Petraeus to give interviews. The military’s independent, so if Petraeus gave an interview, it was only to spread the real and only truth about Iraq’s military progress, and nothing more. Australia should thank God that Howard’s their leader, someone who, like Bush, stays until the job is done.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:47 pmFaiz, Ask Howard Dean about polls four months out……I have a feeling Howard will be re-elected when Aussies consider their national security and wallets.
Comment by mighty aphrodite — August 31, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
Cause Americans really considered those two issues in 2006. Sorry MA you are as delusional as the wanta-be boy king you worship.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:48 pmBut as numerous reports have indicated, these claims of success are specious. Sectarian and ethnic killings remain very high, running at almost double the rate of last year.
Looks like I’m still batting a thousand, Jingo. What say you?
August 31st, 2007 at 1:51 pm“He’s a man of steel.” Whatever, dipshit.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:53 pmNotice how ignorant trolls apologize and defend losers like Dubya and Howard…there must be some reason. 28%ers are bottom feeding, knuckle dragging, troglodytes….in favor of the thugs of the crime family and too ignorant to realize they have something slipped in their pants.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:55 pmComment by ProgskeepbelittlingPetraeussincehecontradictsthem — August 31, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Just a suggestion… if you dispensed with punctuation (any and all)
August 31st, 2007 at 1:55 pmit would be much easier to read your post.
And wouldn’t change what little if any sensibity it contains.
Gen’l. Betrayus is a fool, a tool and nothing more than Chimpy’s butt boy.
I sincerely hope the Aussies are smarter than we are.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:55 pmPetraeus is beginning to sound like another guy in Iraq - the one who said that Bagdad would not fall even as opposition tanks were approching behind him.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:58 pmIt would be heart warming to see Howard hit the skids.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:59 pmTurning a corner and last throes, so to speak. Why is Patreaus interfering in Australia’s elections?
Perhaps he should find out who he gave our guns, weapons, and supplies to in Iraq.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:59 pmComment by Raven — August 31, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
It certainly is an interesting consistent formula that fool keeps posting.
Fifteen to sixteen lines, five to seven run on sentences in one paragraph, three to four ridiculous assertions followed by an ill concieved false conclusion.
Sounds like talking points pasted from the RNC.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:00 pmGeneral Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year
If you read it the right(wrong) way it sounds like there was some bad-a$$ stuff going on in Petraeus’ headquarters last year.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:02 pmIf you read it the right(wrong) way it sounds like there was some bad-a$$ stuff going on in Petraeus’ headquarters last year.
Comment by dlet — August 31, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
Sounds like there was an 80 percent reduction in dinner banquet beheadings at the headquarters.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:04 pmComment by ProgskeepbelittlingPetraeussincehecontradictsthem — August 31, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
No mater how old and debunked the “liberals hate our troops” screed becomes, there will always be laughable trolls like this that can’t resist firing it out there just one more time.
Sad, really. The disconnect with reality is complete.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:04 pm“But as numerous reports have indicated, these claims of success are specious. Sectarian and ethnic killings remain very high, running at almost double the rate of last year.”
*******Folks that is all you need to know about Petraeus.The guy is a liar, and just for an additional star he will lie and even have young American die for his star.In short he is a murderer.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:05 pmI guess one positive thing to come out of this administration:
August 31st, 2007 at 2:06 pmBush’s all but non-existent foreign policy, isolationism and general bungling of his war have helped on the international field. It looks like aside from destroying the Republican party here at home for generations to come (at the expense of the rest of our loyal nation unfortunately) he’s having a negative influence for his stooges in international elections. Vote all of his foreign lackies out, world!
“Howard has yet to set a date for the election, but it is expected to occur later this year.”
On an aside-Bush probably wishes he could be the one to decide when elections are to be held over here. I could see those goal posts moving already.
Absolutely correct.
Why do progs hate America?
Comment by Mr P — August 31, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
You’re the ones cheerleading the deaths of troops, p. You hate Americans, because your cowardice makes you look weak and hypocritical to real patriots. Your every answer is to kill more troops, and more Iraqi innocents. You have no credibility, and obviously no courage.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:07 pmBetraeus serves at the pleasure of the Decider. The Decider will decide what’s the truth and that’s that.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:10 pmReal News TP just trying to help:)
August 31st, 2007 at 2:10 pm———————————————————–
Bush unveils mortgage crisis first steps
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5581.html
Did Petraeus just call Howard another Stalin?
August 31st, 2007 at 2:13 pmPetraeus times his interview in the Australian newspaper to coincide with Bush’s visit. Petraeus will time his report in the U.S. to coincide with September 11th. Petraeus insists that deaths in Iraq are down despite the statistics that show they have doubled. I wonder what Bush threatened General Petraeus with to make him behave like a marionnette.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:18 pmWhy do progs hate America?
Comment by Mr P — August 31, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
This coming from one of the amateur cheerleaders for the REAL group that hates America and its citizens.
Who was it, moron, that brought us the following: illegal undercover surveilance of American citizens in their own homes and workplaces; destruction of habeas corpus protections; lying about Iraqi WMDs to justify an immoral and illegal invasion of a sovreign country which resulted in the deaths (so far) of nearly 4000 American servicemen and women; running the Department of Justice as an arm of the RNC; selling the US Congress to the highest bidder (typically the oil companies, the pharmaceutical companies and Halliburton)…
I could go on and on…but you get the picture. Now be a good boy, drink your kool-aid, blow KKKarl a kiss and go back to your sandbox to play so we adults can get on with fixing the problems in this country that you and your ilk have foisted upon us.
Oh and by the way — you smell bad, you can’t spell, and your mom dresses you funny. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:22 pmAs someone who enlisted and volunteered for the war of my generation, then learned my lesson, I am always interested in what the “patriots” insist on.
As a liberal, I did my duty in the Vietnam War, and don’t like anyone questioning my patriotism, nor motives.
Mr. progskeepbelittling is under duress with the daily reports coming out of corruption, incompetence, and felonies, so maybe he’s a little sensitive to what the “conservatives” have done to our country.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:26 pm“Man of Steel” in Russian is “Stalin”.
Really.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:30 pm“General Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year.”
Wow, that is one big gigantic lie. I guess it’s a precursor of what we will be fed by Betrayus when he reports to Congress. Well, I’m glad for the heads up because now the Democrats can gather all the real statistics that disprove this statement.
Hopefully the Australians are smart enough to know when they are being lied to.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:31 pm“Comment by ProgskeepbelittlingPetraeussincehecontradictsthem — August 31, 2007 @ 1:47 pm
Just a suggestion… if you dispensed with punctuation (any and all)
it would be much easier to read your post.
And wouldn’t change what little if any sensibity it contains.
Comment by Raven “
Hi Raven - I like the way he posts. One big paragraph with a big moniker. It makes his posts very easy to skip. I never read them because they are always a bunch of garbage and I have better things to do with my time than read garbage.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:45 pm“Folks that is all you need to know about Petraeus.The guy is a liar, and just for an additional star he will lie and even have young American die for his star.In short he is a murderer.
Comment by DutchHenry”
I agree with you 100%. I also think that any politician who votes to continue this madness, whether Republic or Democrat, are also murderers. They know by their dithering they are sentencing 100 or so soldiers to their deaths every month. I often wonder how they sleep at night.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:49 pmJust love the way Bush utilizes Rupert Murdoch’s global right wing propaganda organization. Without Murdoch’s right wing propaganda, there would be no Bush presidency or Howard for that matter.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:51 pmMurdoch provides these losers with free campaign commercials 24 hours a day. Something very wrong with this picture.
I thought one of the requirements to be a general was to have an advanced degree. Looks like Petraus has a problem with arithmetic; or to quote his commander(?) in chief: the math doesn’t work
August 31st, 2007 at 3:05 pmWhat’s up in the Down Under? When I visited Oz back in the 1980s everything seemed mellow and progressive. What happened? Are the Australianers still trying to carry White Man’s Burden or what? It would seem that any political support from the lying war-mongering election-stealing Bush would be the kiss of death for politicians in other countries… But, one never knows. Fascism and paranoia make strange bed-fellows…
August 31st, 2007 at 3:38 pmYeah, ‘The Australian’ is Rupert Murdoch’s flagship paper that he launched in 1964.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:34 pmAustralians are much more political and world aware than Americans.
Howard is out.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:46 pmHe might be delusional, but you are an idiot.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:58 pmAmericans voted about something in Congressional elections in 2006 therefor Australian voters….. what ?
What fkn sense do you think you were making there nimrod ?
WTF are you talking about ?
A national Australian newspaper interviewed the man most directly responsible for implementing military policy in Iraq, where Australia has troops.
This could only occur if that General decided to screw with Australian elections 2 months out could it ?
No other reason for one of Australia’s major newspapers to interview such a figure ?
A better question would be, why hasn’t the Australian media been banned from Iraq, since this General isn’t the only one who will provide this same story.
Got any opinion on leaders from the Afghan campaign, in the same situation talking to the same newspaper in the exact same way during the same pre-election period ?
Got fkn anything at all going on in your tiny little brain there ?
Yeah let’s all wonder why Bush would be talking about Howard in the week before he travels to Australia. Or why a country with troops in Iraq might be sending reporters there. Really, the only possible answer is election influence, you idiots.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:15 pmI can’t believe this irresponsible trashing of a true American hero. If you believe that this approach will advance your cause, you are completely deluded.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:21 pmLMAO. You are calling someone else ignorant ? WTF do you know about Howard’s governance you idiot ?
Why have I been hearing about Clinton taking the economy from rags to riches with paid-off debt and balanced budgets for years now arsehole ? Was it because that was a good thing ? Because it showed the economic responsibility as opposed to the irresponsibility of the other party that ran up that record debt ?
Yeah well, the Australian equivalent of Clinton there was Howard. And because he chose to do the same thing Clinton did, raise taxes and pay off the huge public debt left to him, we’ve had one of the strongest economies in the world for the past decade.
You remember that recession a while back in the US ? Well we don’t. Get the point ?
From July this year my parents won’t pay tax on their retirement income ever again, like every other over 60 in the country. This has been achieved at the same time that securing funding for the massive, unfunded reserves for public service retirees has been secured. Something that will end up bankrupting economies around the world in the same situation.
We can do this because of the budget surpluses this government has delivered, as opposed to the record deficits delivered by the opposition.
You wanna pretend you could actually swim rather than sink if you did hear why someone does defend the Liberal party’s record then let’s go chump.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:34 pmGen. P., sir, you are a lying war whore. Don’t take it personally, you are not a person.
September 1st, 2007 at 1:46 amHoward is as crony-capitalist as Cheney and dirty-pool as Rove, but he’s smart. Australia’s Iraq participation is token: minimal and confined to specialist ops within relatively safe areas. You can count Australian Iraq combat fatalities on one hand, compared to America’s 3,000 and rising.
Not that the Islamic world will think any better of Australia for that - something that didn’t register inside Howard’s only relatively less idiotic noggin - and something not unimportant when the world’s most populous Islamic country (Indonesia) is Australia’s near neighbour.
There is some good news. Howard is behind in the polls in his own electorate and an election must held this year. For a guy who is all politician and zero anything else, a loss there would be an an almost fitting reward for his services to this nation.
September 1st, 2007 at 4:36 am>Mr. progskeepbelittling is under duress
Its “Miss” … I’m all but certain its the mighty hermaphdodite. They both overuse parenthesis in thier sentence structure, and this is the first thread I’ve seen them both post in.. and go figure… they posted 3 minutes apart.. I figure that innane madlibesque rant took about 3 minutes to write, from the looks of it… Before “myhypocriticalbrainisravagedbysyphillus” hit almost every thread, now “its” not, but the the mighty hermaphrodite is…
September 1st, 2007 at 6:38 amKilo (#45), the economic foundation for Australia’s low-inflation, low-unemployment run through the past decade was laid by the Labor government under Paul Keating’s economic management. The ongoing boom in mining exports, to a large extent driven by the growth of China, has also kept things rolling along nicely and given a healthy revenue base for the Howard government - add the sell-off of a few formerly public corporations (e.g., Telstra), and surplus budgets haven’t been too hard to manage.
What you also completely ignore is the moral depravity of John Howard and most of his Government. Apart from his role as head cheerleader for the Coalition of the Willing, Howard has capitalised on fear and distorted the truth to win elections - from false claims that boat people threw their children overboard to ensure they would be rescued, to false claims that they would keep interest rates low. Now, Howard’s government is using the APEC meeting, George W Bush and, apparently, General Petraeus, to try to build enough perception that a Howard government is what we need to contend with Iraq and the threat of terrorism. Unfortunately for Honest John, after 11 years the same lies and stunts don’t seem to be working any more.
September 1st, 2007 at 7:03 amPtobias is right. If Howard hadn’t introduced the GST, an extra 10-15% tax on nearly everything we buy, we eat, we read there would be no surplus. If Howard hadn’t slashed federal government spending on education, health, hospitals and even the funding of veterans programs, there would be no surplus. If Australia hadn’t found a massive market for coal and mineral exports in China, Japan and other countries, worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, there would be no surplus.
Even Murdoch’s ‘The Australian’ recently shredded Howard’s 11 year reign, asking what he has really left Australians from such a massive influx of new wealth. Not much. The Australian also took Howard to task for ignoring infrastructure and basically blowing his wad on shit.
Just as they did before, the Labor Party will now have to come in and clean up the mess left by the conservatives.
BTW, most of the television news programs bookended the Petreaus and Bush interviews with accurate reports on the failure of the surge.
They’re not fooling anybody.
And almost everybody in Sydney is blaming Bush and Howard for the mini-police state we will endure from Monday morning, due to the APEC summit. A ten foot high ’steel wall’ is now being built through the centre of Sydney, to keep an angry public away from Bush, and to stifle democratic rights to protest and free speech.
http://www.theorstrahyun.blogspot.com
September 1st, 2007 at 9:36 amGeorge Bush has knocked this Republican from the party forever. The Iraq war was a major mistake in my view. Even more frightening is how the US has moved steadily toward becoming a police state since 9-11. Police running around with automatic weapons and seem to have gotten overly agressive with even routine police work. I always wondered how Hitler could get so many people to join his secret police. No I understand that he did it incrementally, taking rights away for the safety of the people. This country needs someone who truly cares about liberty and not running a dictatorship out of the white house. Never before in the history of the us has the president hid behind “national security” as often as this one to avoid constitutional scrutiny. I truly fear that my children will end up living in a Gestapo state where no one will have freedoms, movement will be restricted and the constitution will be, to use the President’s words, “just a damn piece of paper.”
September 1st, 2007 at 1:40 pmHalf of Australia may still like Howard…. but almost no one here likes Bush. If Howard and Bush do plenty of press together it’s certainly not going to help Howard get re-elected.
The simple fact is Howard is a lying wanker. Anything else included in a biography of the man is largely wasted ink. Just need “lying wanker.”
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:36 amYeah, but thanks to Johnny Howard, plasma TVs and imported cars have never been so affordable! Now that’s progess…. isn’t it?
September 2nd, 2007 at 6:58 amBut don’t forget the other reason Johnny’s copping it up the jacksie in the polls - Work Choices. Now there’s something that would make good friend W proud - make the workforce “flexible” (read expendable), giving a boost to executive salarys, profit margins and shareprices. Something to make all Aussies proud - as long as you’re a shareholding company exec.
And in regards to the editorial in the Oz bollocking Johnny’s economic creds, the saddest thing about that is that’s the gear Labour should have been screaming from the rooftops for the past 11 years. It breaks your heart when it’s Murdoch’s mouthpiece doing the hard yards.
Anyways, it’ll be great to see the back of Johnny come the election, not to mention Downer, Abbot, Nelson, etc. Who the f**k votes for these arseholes?
Howard pushes the notion that as a country we have never been so well of economically. Unfortunately Mr & Mrs Average wage earner and mortgagee do not quite get that as the benefits of this wonderful economy and the windfall to the country has not flowed through to Mr & Mrs Average.
Everyone is doing it tough except a select few such as the politicians, the beaurocrats and white collar workers, the CEO’s and those at the top of the food chain, but we are such a prosperous nation so we are told again and again by the government of the day ?
Why then does prosperity not flow through and trickle down to Mr & Mrs Average who contribute to that prosperity through blood, sweat and tears and who struggle to meet the committments of the modern day era we now live in.
Politicians are put there by the people for the people. History has shown and will show again that people power will remove those political parties which do not deliver a better country for tomorrows generation, our children and our grandchildren. We deserve at the very least honesty, integrety, sincerity, committment and inclusivity in the major decisions which impact and affect our lifestyle and that of future generations.
I am not pre-empting the death knell of the current political party in power but am simply saying this; ‘That no matter what your political persuasion if you allow outside influences rather than the peple you serve to impact policy and as a result show total contempt for the voice of the nation you serve then expect the unexpected’.
It matters not to me who holds the power of running this great country, what does matter is that it is run in the spirit of honest and ethical service to Australia and its population and not for the population of other countries and nations at the expense of our own.
Derek
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:00 amOne of my favourite recent headlines here in Australia concerned the leak of secret Government research on the alarmingly low poll numbers for PM Howard. The newspaper encapsulated the research perfectly:
HOWARD: OLD & SNEAKY
I don’t know why but this just totally cracks me up. Again & again. It conjures up this oddly astute image of Howard as Montgomery Burns: venal, geriatric, befuddled & rat-cunning.
In this context, and that of his imminent defeat, it is just too perfect that Howard has as international cheerleaders, the Dog & Pony Tour Guide General David-where-did-I-put-those-200,000 machine guns?-Petraeus & The Moron in Chief. With a few distant grumbles from angry Mount Cheney, we have the ultimate tri-pronged-anchor of endorsements: A smart liar, a rich idiot & an undead psychopath.
Howard unfortunately will not lose power because of his war-mongering, his lying, amnesia or plausible deniability about refugees, kickbacks to Saddam or any of his government’s other spectacular ethical breaches. Howard will lose power because he repeatedly hit the hip-pocket nerve of the aspirational, swing-seat middle-class. He did this with his Industrial Relations legislation, his squandering of a GST generated surplus, his pandering to big business, his brutal commodification of tertiary education & his undermining of Medicare. When low unemployment & low average wages, combine with huge house prices, rising interest rates, humungous corporate profits & payouts - the aspirational middle class begins to smell something distictly rodentiary in the much-lauded, economic consruct laughingly referred to as a BOOM. Hoist upon his own petard, Howard the ultimate economic rationalist will lose, justly, poetically, because ultimately: “It IS the Economy, Stupid.”
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:05 amtest
September 4th, 2007 at 3:15 am