Bush heckled in Australia
US President George W Bush was mocked and derided yesterday during an address to the Australian parliament, where he thanked Prime Minister John Howard for backing the war to oust Iraq’s Saddam Hussein from power.
President Bush, stopping off in Australia on his tour of Asia and the Pacific Rim, maintained the war in Iraq was right and had been vindicated by the discovery of secret biological laboratories and plans to gain long-range missiles.
“America, Australia and other nations acted in Iraq to remove a grave and gathering danger, instead of wishing and waiting while tragedy drew closer,” he said.
Mr Bush saluted Australians for aiding the US to “advance the ideals of democracy and freedom.”
With security on high alert, protest was kept to a bare minimum outside the chambers.
Nearly 2,000 protesters protested against the Iraq war outside the chambers but they were kept 100 yards away, and outside hearing range of Mr Bush.
But dissent came from two senators, Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle, both members of the Green Party.
The two were ejected from the closed-off Australian Parliament for their outbursts.
Ahmed Habib, 18, whose father is one of two Australians detained in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in parliament as a guest of the Greens, was also thrown out, after shouting: “Hey Bush, what about my dad?”
Mr Bush praised John Howard as “a leader of exceptional courage.”
Mr Bush said of global terrorism: “The terrorists cannot be appeased. They must be found, and they must be fought, and they must be defeated.”
During his trip Mr Bush has also visited Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
