"The fact that Obama himself was making the announcement of U.S. troops in Australia quelled a lot of fears," Lockyer said. If Bush had made it, he said, "there would have been a lot more hostility."
"Democrat presidents tend to be a little bit more hesitant to define the world as good and evil, which tends to be more attractive to Australian ears," he said.
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Don Melvin reported from Brussels, and Rod McGuirk from Canberra, Australia. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers David Rising in Berlin, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Mohammed Daraghmeh and Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, Malcolm Foster in Tokyo, Mazin Yahya in Baghdad, Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia, Hamza Hendawi in Cairo, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, and Chris Torchia in Ankara, Turkey.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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