Foreign troops in Iraq are motivating "terrorists" there and should be pulled out as soon as possible, preferably by the end of next year, the recently retired head of Australia's military said yesterday.
US-led coalition troops should be removed as quickly as local forces can be trained to take their place, said Peter Cosgrove, who stepped down as head of the Australian Defense Force in June, in a television program that was to be aired late yesterday.
"I think we've got to train the Iraqis as quickly as we can and to a point where we take one of the focal points of terrorist motivation away, and that is foreign troops," the retired general said in the ABC TV program.
Cosgrove said foreign troops could leave once an adequate Iraqi security force was in place.
Asked how soon this could occur, he said: "Well, I figure that if we could get that done by the end of 2006, that would be really good."
Australia has some 900 troops in Iraq and Prime Minister John Howard, a strong supporter of US President George W. Bush's "war on terror," has said they would only leave once their work was finished.
Howard has also insisted that Australia's involvement in Iraq had not put it at increased risk of attack, as alleged by critics.
Cosgrove, whose son served in the Australian contingent in Iraq and was lightly injured in a bombing in Baghdad, said the global landscape had changed after the Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent US-led "war against terror."
"We can't restore [to the situation] previous to 9/11. We're in a situation now where there is an overt, obvious, manifest phenomenon of global terrorism or networked terrorism," he said.
The opposition Labor party, which opposed going to Iraq and has called for a definite timeframe for Australia's deployment to the country, supported Cosgrove's comments.
"He was saying that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq is a principal focus of terrorist motivation," parliamentarian Kelvin Thomson told reporters. "And, I think, if we're serious about reducing the risk of terrorism in Australia and wanting to do everything we can to reduce the risk of terrorism in Australia, then we should get Australian troops out of Iraq."
TERROR WARNING
Meanwhile, Australians were warned yesterday not to travel to Saudi Arabia because terrorists were planning attacks there, while nationals inside the kingdom were urged to depart or exercise extreme caution.
"We have received credible reports that terrorists are planning attacks in Saudi Arabia in the near future," Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on its Web site. "This follows other recent reporting suggesting that terrorists may be planning to attack residential housing compounds in Saudi Arabia."
Terrorists could attack at any time, anywhere in Saudi Arabia, including the capital, Riyadh, it said.
Previous terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia have targeted both Saudi citizens and foreigners within residential compounds, their places of business, and government installations, it said.
The US embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia were ordered closed yesterday and today because of threats, the US embassy said on Sunday.
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