Australian Leader Salutes Bush, Gets Flak

By ROD McGUIRK,AP
Posted: 2008-04-04 12:33:57
Filed Under: World News
CANBERRA, Australia (April 4) - Australia's prime minister came under fire at home Friday over a playful salute he gave President Bush at a NATO summit, which critics said seemed to suggest Australian subservience to Washington.


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Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Much Ado
About a Salute3 of 3 Bush, seen at the summit on Thursday, spoke warmly to Rudd after the salute. The video of the encounter between the two at the summit has been broadcast repeatedly on Australian television. Source: Reuters

Australian television repeatedly broadcast videos of the gesture Thursday on the sidelines of the Bucharest summit and speculated about what it meant, while opposition lawmakers said it belittled Australia.

"We are not the 51st state of the United States of America and Mr. Rudd's salute carried a subservient connotation many Australians won't like," said Bob Brown, leader of the minor opposition Greens pary.


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The salute revived memories of Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, accusing Australia under former Prime Minister John Howard of being too close to Bush and too willing to adopt hawkish U.S. foreign policy.

Rudd explained that he was just being friendly toward a world leader whom he had met for the first time as prime minister a week earlier in Washington.

"It was just a joke," Rudd told Australian reporters in Bucharest. "I was just saying 'hi' to the president of the United States - I was just with him the other day."

After saluting, Rudd strode through other NATO leaders to shake Bush's hand and spoke to the U.S. president while smiling.





Rudd replaced Howard as prime minister in elections last November. Rudd, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat to Beijing, has promised to follow an independent foreign policy and to withdraw 550 Australian combat troops from Iraq this year.


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in16

 

People are always going to find something to bitch about, in the news.

the guy gave bush a friendly salute, and people are acting like he just got finished swallowing bush's man chowder.

this new guy tho, in australia, is more compliant with us, as far as sending troops into the War on Terror. If I recall correctly, Howard wanted the Aussies to play a lessor role.

This new guy is just about as gangster as Bush, so I guess seeing him throw up a salute, had more of a meaning to Aussie citizens worried about increased involvement in these wars.

 

You got it twisted. Rudd is with the Labor Party...a very liberal party there.

But, I will say that Rudd did the stupid. You don't salute Satan.

The Kid Rasta 8)