and Green Left Weekly
When it comes to political analysis the Green Left Weekly sometimes calls it correctly. Last week on Radio National Breakfast the presenter Fran Kelly asked Michelle Grattan of The Sun-Herald about Kevin Rudd's visit to the US. Grattan predicted that the Prime Minister and the US President, George Bush, "would be discussing Iraq and Labor's withdrawal from Iraq". Kelly did not proffer a correction.However, as the readers of the GLW and some others would be aware, the Rudd Government is not withdrawing from Iraq. The GLW issue of March 5 carried the heading "Rudd to keep 900 troops in Iraq" over an article by Doug Lorimer complaining that Labor planned to leave in place 60 per cent of the Australian Defence Force personnel "assigned to the Iraq war" by the Howard government. Lorimer is correct. Rudd Labor is withdrawing the Australian Defence Force battle group from southern Iraq. But the security detachment, a fighting force, will stay in Baghdad. What's more, Australia's naval and air commitment to Iraq will remain in place....
