Most Australians want their troops out of Iraq

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: n/a
Date: 08 October 2006

CANBERRA, Australia_Most Australians support the major opposition party's
policy of withdrawing troops from Iraq, a poll revealed Monday.

The opposition center-left Labor Party is leading the center-right coalition
of Prime Minister John Howard ahead of elections due late next year, the
same AC Nielsen poll published in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper
showed.

The poll showed that 59 percent of respondents thought that Australian
troops should be withdrawn and 36 percent said they should stay.

Australia sent 2,000 troops to support U.S. and British forces in the Iraq
invasion in 2003 and 1,300 Australian troops remain in and around Iraq.

Howard has vowed the troops will stay in Iraq as long as they are needed.
However, Labor Leader Kim Beazley has pledged to withdraw all troops except
those guarding Australian diplomats if he wins government.

The poll showed Labor was leading the government 54 percent to 46 percent,
having extended it its lead by 2 percentage points over the past month.

The poll, based on a nationwide random telephone survey of 1,408 adults from
Thursday to Saturday last week, has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage
points.
 
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