| Follow-up to yesterday's article. |
Australia refused on Tuesday to apologise to Spain and the Philippines after blaming them for encouraging militants to issue threats by withdrawing their troops from Iraq.
| "Are we not supposed to notice? Sorry. We don't have time to be that polite. We have more important things to do." |
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Spain and the Philippines needed "to face up to the truth" that terrorists, who were using them as examples when threatening other countries with attack, were exploiting them. Spain summoned Australia's ambassador in Madrid on Monday to protest Downer's comments over the past two days, which it described as "unacceptable".
| And if there's anyone who knows unacceptable, it's Zapatero. |
| What're they going to do if they don't accept them? Send them back? |
"There's no point in trying to scurry away from the truth ... I am sensitive about the fact that terrorists use the examples of Spain and the Philippines in order to put pressure on Australia," Downer told Australian radio. "If you accede to the demands of terrorists they will exploit the acceding to their demand ... we are not going to apologise. We'll let bygones be bygones," he said.
| "Just drop it now, and we won't dwell too much in the future on your lack of cojones." |
Spain's Socialist party had vowed to pull troops out of Iraq and made good on its promise after unexpectedly winning a March 11 poll, three days after 191 people were killed in coordinated train bombings in Madrid blamed on Islamic militants. The Philippines brought its troops home early to save the life of a Filipino hostage. Australia's conservative Prime Minister John Howard last week defended his decision to join the war in US-led war on Iraq after a report criticised Australia's intelligence agencies and their assessments of pre-war information. He has said Australia's 850 troops in and around Iraq will stay as long as necessary. A poll has shown two-thirds of Australians support his stand. But the opposition centre-left Labor party, polling neck-and-neck with the eight-year-old government, has pledged to bring troops home by Christmas if it wins office in a cliff-hanger election tipped for October. |