PM backs Bush, no questions asked
The Australain
05feb02
JOHN Howard has committed Australia to a broader US-led war against terrorism just as Washington's other allies are questioning the task.
And nations that have criticised President George W. Bush's belligerent language towards Iraq, Iran and North Korea have been warned the US could go it alone in the war on terrorism.
US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz told a 43-nation security conference in Munich his country was ready to act outside traditional alliances.
The Prime Minister, speaking at the World Economic Forum in New York on Saturday, said he was willing to follow the US into a war conducted beyond Afghanistan's borders.
"I will join others who are saying that the campaign against terrorism is by no means over," Mr Howard said.
"And we must recognise that the possibility of activity elsewhere in the campaign against terrorism is very real."
Mr Wolfowitz, who is considered a hardliner, said that on the military front, US tactics in the war on terror were to use "not a single coalition but rather different coalitions for different missions".
Giving an example, he said: "At the end of the day, we don't need NATO in the Philippines" -- a reference to US military actions in that country. "We didn't need everyone in Afghanistan."
Reflecting European concerns over Mr Bush's State of the Union speech last week, in which he labelled Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil", German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping said he favoured a political solution in the anti-terrorist fight against Iraq rather than the military option.
French officials have des cribed the speech's wording as "unsuitable" and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said he had seen no evidence to substantiate Mr Bush's allegations against the three countries.