Obama on Howard's comments: "Empty rhetoric"

Wow, things are getting intense in what I guess we can now call the John Howard--Barack Obama feud.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The 45-year-old senator waded into a major foreign policy row just one day after formally announcing his candidacy, telling (Australian Prime Minister) Mr. Howard he should dispatch 20,000 Australians to Iraq if he wanted to back up his comments.

"I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced," Mr. Obama told reporters in the mid-western US state of Iowa.

"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1,400, so if he is ... to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq.

"Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."

So much for Obama taking the high road in this dispute. All he had to do was dismiss Howard's comments as meddlesome in regards to the American political process.

I wonder how Obama will respond when Hillary Clinton lays some criticism on him?

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