Fed: Bush phones Howard to tell him of Hussein capture = 3

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-2003
Fed: Bush phones Howard to tell him of Hussein capture = 3

Mr Howard said Mr Bush was naturally pleased and relieved at Saddam's capture, but
not triumphant.

"I am so pleased for the American military as well and I congratulated the president," he said.

"He said he had General Sanchez (commander of US troops in Iraq) waiting on the other
line and that he would pass on those congratulations.

"They've carried the the burden and they've suffered a lot of casualties since the
war phase ended.

"And I feel as pleased for them as well as I do for the Iraqi people and they deserve
our congratulations."

Mr Howard said he did not regret for a moment sending Australian troops to Iraq, despite
the fact no weapons of mass destruction had been found.

"I think it was the right thing to have done and if the alternative advice had been
taken, Saddam Hussein would still be running Iraq," he said.

"He would still be murdering people."

And Mr Howard said the jury was still out on whether Iraq was developing weapons of
mass destruction.

"There is evidence of the existence of weapons programs and I think people who say
that there will never be any evidence discovered to match the very strong intelligence
we had some months ago, I think they are being altogether too premature in saying that."

Mr Howard said Saddam's capture was a great development for the people of Iraq, who
no longer had to live under the shadow of fear.

"Iraq has never really enjoyed full freedom and democracy and when you've had a dictator
brutalising and murdering the population over a 35 year period, until he is either killed
or taken into captivity, there was always the fear he would come back," he said.

"Even though his military had been defeated six or eight months earlier there was always
the worry that he would come back.

"I believe that this will lift an enormous psychological burden off the Iraqi people."

But Mr Howard warned fighting in Iraq would not automatically stop and there would
be no sudden end to terrorist attacks.

"But over time this is the single most decisive thing that can begin to further improve
the situation in Iraq and I know that the world will rejoice with the Iraqi people that
this loathsome man has finally been captured," he said.

AAP sm/sp

KEYWORD: IRAQ HOWARD LEAD 3 CANBERRA

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