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 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Prime Minister John Howard said withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq would damage Australia's alliance with the United States.
Howard said he agreed to send 2,000 troops to back the U.S.-led Iraq invasion because of the perceived threat of weapons of mass destruction, but also to preserve a security alliance with the U.S. that was formalized in a 1951 treaty. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
"I have to now deal with a decision: do we rat on the Americans ... do we say to the Americans, it's got all too hard and too difficult? If anybody thinks that that wouldn't do damage to the alliance, they're kidding themselves," Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting radio.
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