Barack to Ausies, "Up Yours"

Just one day after first-term U.S. senator, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 democrat nomination One, Australia's prime minister, John Howard criticized Obama’s opposition to the Iraq war and his pledge to remove all U.S. combat forces from that country by March 31, 2008. Australian’s Prime Minister, a staunch U.S. ally who has sent troops to Iraq and faces his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's proposals would spell disaster for the Middle East. "I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television. "If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats." Howard has repeatedly defied domestic opposition to the war by keeping about 1,400 non-combat Australian troops in and around Iraq and refusing to set a deadline for their withdrawal saying, "If it's all right for us to go, it's all right for the Americans and the British to go, and if everybody goes, Iraq will descend into total civil war and there'll be a lot of bloodshed."
Obama issued a statement saying that Howard wasn't in a position to be overly critical. "If Prime Minister Howard truly believes what he says, perhaps his country should find its way to contribute more than just 1,400 troops so some American troops can come home," he said. "It's easy to talk tough when it's not your country or your troops making the sacrifices."
After years of democrats advancing the perception, that President Bush has alienated America’s friends oversees, its instructive how the ‘great Uniter’, Barack Obama has succeeded in creating a real rift with one of our staunchest allies and it only took him two days. In truth, you would be hard pressed to find a single instance of President Bush saying anything derogatory or demeaning about anyone, save our sworn enemies. Never mind Press Releases that pass in the night, George W. Bush remains presidential even when confronted, face-to-face, by such rude antagonists as Senators Webb, Pelosi and Reid or foreign fascists like Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Bin Laden.
Is this what Obama’s campaign means by “changing the way we do things in Washington”?

P.S. In his very next diplomatic effort, Obama said, "We now have spent $400 billion (in Iraq)and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."