Obama's Response

After the comments of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who criticized Barack Obama's plans for troop withdrawl, Obama responded while in Iowa.

Obama said that he was flattered by the criticism of one of President Bush's close allies, because Howard had singled him out. He then challenged Howard, noting the fact that the U.S. has roughly 140,000 troops stationed in Iraq to Australia's 1,400. "So if he is ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq," Obama said.

This little incident can do wonders for Obama's campaign, because it shows that the presidential hopeful is not going to back down from a fight, and in his first bit of criticism since entering the race, he showed that he can take the scrutiny that will be under him until the elections.

Read the washingtonpost.com article about the incident.