Australia’s appeasement bloc is getting loud: Australians Condemn Government on Iraq.

CANBERRA, Australia - Former defense chiefs and diplomats condemned Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war Sunday in a major blow to Prime Minister John Howard’s re-election prospects.

The 43 eminent Australians including two former chiefs of defense and three ambassadors issued a scathing public statement accusing the government of deceit and of rubber-stamping foreign policies decided by Washington.

With some commentators predicting that Howard this week will announce a Sept. 18 election, the statement underscores the war as a major issue. Howard hopes for a fourth three-year term as prime minister.

Australia and Britain were the only allies to send troops to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

“We are concerned that Australia was committed to join the invasion of Iraq on the basis of false assumptions and the deception of the Australian people,” the statement said. “Above all, it is wrong and dangerous for our elected representatives to mislead the Australian people.”

Howard, who was in Samoa for a Pacific leaders’ forum, said: “The argument that we took the country to war based on a lie is itself a misrepresentation and I continue to reject it.”

Two inquiries have found the government had not misrepresented intelligence about Iraq’s weapons programs and had not pressured spy agencies into bolstering a case for war.

But just as we see in the US, facts do not matter to these people, as they continue to repeat the same loony left litany of nonexistent “deceptions.”