BY ALISON DELLIT
& ANTHONY BENBOW
"The government's decision to commit [Australian troops to the US-led invasion of Iraq] was wrong but we have got to be realistic about this. They are there and what we have got to hope for in the current circumstances is [that] their task is completed quickly and successfully and they return home as soon as possible" — with these words, federal Labor leader Simon Crean threw into doubt the ALP's opposition to the war on Iraq.
Speaking on ABC TV's Insiders on March 23, Crean was answering a question from interviewer Barry Cassidy about whether the ALP would still be calling for the withdrawal of Australian troops. "The government has joined the 'Coalition of the Willing', we are at war, the disarmament of Iraq does need to be achieved. It is just that it could have been done a different way", Crean continued. "But I've been saying from the outset, whilst I disagree with the government's decision to commit our troops to war, I will support the troops... Of course I want the troops to win."
Crean had previously called for Australian troops to be brought back to Australia, most recently during a National Press Club address on March 20, given as the US-led attack on Iraq began. On the same day, ALP senators had supported an amendment to the government's motion on the Iraq war that called for the "immediate withdrawal of Australian troops".
Crean's March 23 comments, coming on the same day as many Labor leaders — including Mark Latham and Laurie Brereton — had marched in anti-war rallies, set of a storm of reaction. Some federal MPs were supportive, including the Labor left's Tanya Plibersek, who told ABC news on March 24: "Our troops are already on the outskirts of Baghdad. By the time we can get them back on ships and get them to Australia this war will have been well over."
There were rumours, reported by the March 26 Melbourne Herald Sun, that the March 24 Labor shadow cabinet meeting had a heated discussion over the troop withdrawal demand. "All hell will break loose in the caucus on [March 25]. I can't believe that he's made such a stupid statement", anti-war Labor MP Harry Quick told ABC radio on March 24.
It didn't. Carmen Lawrence, federal MP for Fremantle in WA, explained to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that she thought "there had been some misunderstanding". "When the parliamentary party caucus resumed on [March 25] we restated, I think without dissent, our position that we should continue to call for Australian troops to be withdrawn, and that were we elected and the war was still going on, we would immediately withdraw them. Simon assured us that there'd be no backtracking on our unanimously adopted position of the week before."
However on March 26, the Australian Greens decided to move a similar motion to that which the Senate had passed a week earlier, calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops. According to a March 26 Australian Associated Press report, Greens senator Kerry Nettle told reporters: "[The motion] will test the Labor Party to see what their real position on this finally is, or what it is today."
In negotiations with the Greens senators, the ALP agreed to support the motion if the word "immediately" was replaced with "safe". The Greens agreed to amend the motion accordingly. The motion which was passed by the Senate on March 26 read: "The Senate: a) reiterates its opposition to the war with Iraq and urges the safe withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq; b) urges Australians opposed to the war to continue to voice their opposition to the government's decision through peaceful and democratic means; and c) expresses its full support for Australian troops, and urges all Australians to maintain their support for Australian troops during and after the current deployment."
Nettle told GLW that the Greens "were seeking to put as much pressure as possible on the Howard government and wanted to send it a strong message". In response to a question about what the passed motion indicated about Labor's position on the war, Nettle cautioned, "it is not our intention to use the war issue to score political points."
"There was a good feeling about passing the motion in the chamber", Nettle added.
The Greens will continue to call for the immediate withdrawal of troops.
Lawrence was unaware that the motion had had the word "immediately" removed, insisting to GLW that it was not removed. "The best way to support the troops is to bring them out of harm's way, to bring them home", she emphasised.
Unlike Crean, in her comments to GLW Lawrence did not emphasise the need to "disarm" Iraq or support a war victory. Lawrence is clearly opposed to the war: "We have to keep drawing attention to the fact that this war is killing people, that people are dying every day, that there is no justification for the war and that it is likely to become uglier as time goes on, and that the Iraqis, far from feeling liberated, are resisting the invasion of their country.
"This is not some heroic, clean operation. It's dirty, it's killing people and it's likely to result in long-term consequences that will embroil the USA, UK and Australia in what I regard as a running sore in the region."
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, April 2, 2003.
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