John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It remains the belief of the government that if we were to precipitantly withdraw from Iraq there would be every justification morally for the United States and the United Kingdom to do the same thing. If all the coalition forces leave Iraq, that would be an enormous victory for terrorism, not only in the Middle East but around the world. That is the reason why we believe that we should remain there until we are satisfied that the Iraqi forces have a capacity to provide adequate security in that country, standing on their own.

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