*Ø* Blogmanac | Howard defiant over Iraq war involvement

"[Australian] Prime Minister John Howard says he did the right thing in sending Australian troops to Iraq last year, despite new claims that the Gulf state did not have any so-called weapons of mass destruction at the time.

"Chief weapons inspector David Kay quit last week, saying he believes Iraq probably got rid of its banned weapons some years ago.

"And United States' Secretary of State Colin Powell has now conceded Saddam Hussein's regime may not have had any chemical or biological weapons when it was attacked ...

"But the Federal Opposition says it is now clear that Australia went to war in Iraq on a false premise ...

"Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, has seized on Mr Kay's resignation.

"'For Mr Kay to come out and say quite plainly that in his view these stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons simply did not exist at the time Mr Howard took Australia to war against Iraq fundamentally torpedoes the credibility of Mr Howard and Mr Downer and Senator Hill in taking this country to war on the argument they put to the Australian people at the time,' Mr Rudd said."
Source: ABC Oz