Bush-Howard warmongering at APEC Summit

The Summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum held 
in Mexico has come and gone. The reportage of it by the Australian mass 
media gives the impression that the only leaders present were John Howard, 
George Bush and Megawati Sukarnoputri, President of Indonesia.

Although the purpose of the forum is to discuss economic issues, Howard and 
Bush attempted to turn the Summit into a warmongering meeting devoted to 
Bush's "war on terrorism".

The bellicose lectures delivered by Howard to the leaders of the other 20 
APEC nations, again indicates that he continues to play the role of deputy 
sheriff of the US in the Asia-Pacific region.

Unseemly pressure is still being applied to Indonesia and other Asian 
nations by way of warnings that tourists should stay away from Malaysia, 
Thailand and Indonesia using unsubstantiated allegations of terrorist 
threats in these countries. Megawati has rejected this pressure and given 
assurances that Indonesia is safe.

The real purpose of these pressures is to force reluctant countries to line 
up with the demands of the US to join its phoney "war on terrorism" and to 
support the planned war against Iraq.

Bush used the Mexico forum to again declare that the US would launch a 
unilateral war against Iraq "if the UN won't act". The US is demanding 
support for its proposed UN Security Council resolution that would give 
United Nations backing to a US invasion of Iraq.

Howard fully backed Bush's threats. His is the language of war.