February 5, 2003: Australian Senate Passes Vote of No Confidence in Prime Minister over Iraq Deployment

The Australian Senate passes a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister John Howard and his conservative Liberal/National coalition for deploying troops to the Persian Gulf to support America’s anticipated invasion against Iraq. “The prime minister has made a unilateral decision and sent 2,000 of our defense personnel off to a war undeclared in the northern hemisphere without any cogent explanation of his actions,” argues the Labor Party’s leader in the Senate, John Faulkner. Seventy-six percent of Australians oppose a US-led invasion of Iraq. Fifty-seven percent say they would support one only if it has UN backing. [BBC, 2/5/2003]