Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I do not really have a lot to add to the answer that I gave to the similar question from Senator Evans yesterday. The former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, did write a memo which has come to public attention. It was a memo which referred to the tactics which the United States should pursue in respect of Iraq. It was not about the strategic position of the United States; it was about the tactics to pursue. In any intervention of this kind, the tactics are constantly kept under review. It was in the context of the James Baker led group which is reporting to the United States President on the way forward with respect to Iraq. It is quite clear that the United States and indeed Australia do remain committed to helping Iraq become a country that can govern, sustain and defend itself.

Along with the United States we continue to believe that there is still a job for us to do in Iraq and that it would be absolutely the wrong thing to do to just abandon Iraq now, and abandon the Iraqi people to terrorists, insurgents and murderers. We will not do that. The question of the ultimate withdrawal of Australian troops is one that will be based on the conditions that I set down yesterday. It will not be based on some arbitrary calendar—that, of course, was the Mark Latham policy and it seems to be the policy of Mr Rudd, who professes to be an ‘all the way with LBJ’ US supporter. We will wait to see. As I said yesterday, Mr Rudd was right out there as one of the most keen and active proponents of the proposition that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. It is our view that Australian troops still have a very important role in supporting the Iraqi security forces and we will remain there while we believe that role is important.