A prominent American anti-war campaigner is urging Australians to take to the streets in protest against the Iraq war.
Cindy Sheehan, who has campaigned against the war since the death of her son Casey in Iraq in 2004, is visiting Australia to address a peace conference.
She says Prime Minister John Howard had no mandate to involve Australia in the war, which began in 2003.
"I think Australians, they just need to get out on the streets and they need to say, 'John Howard, you work for us'," Mrs Sheehan said.
"'We want our troops withdrawn and we don't want you to support America.'"
Mrs Sheehan has questioned Mr Howard's friendship with US President George W Bush.
"George Bush isn't even popular in America any more so I don't know why any leaders in any countries who claim to govern their countries with the consent of the people they govern would align themselves closer with George Bush," she said.
Mrs Sheehan rose to prominence in the anti-war movement when she staged a month-long protest outside Mr Bush's Texas ranch last year.
"I was pretty visible and well-known in the progressive peace movement in the United States but not known by mainstream Americans or internationally known until I camped out," she said.
Logic questioned
She says her campaign against the war is motivated by a television address Mr Bush gave.
"[When] 14 Marines were killed one day, George Bush went on the TV and said they died for a noble cause ... and he had to complete the mission to honour their sacrifices," Mrs Sheehan said.
"I wanted to know what noble cause and I wanted him to stop using Casey's name to continue and to justify more killing."
Mrs Sheehan denies she is a "a pin-up girl for the loopy left and for global terrorists", as claimed by an Australian newspaper columnist.
"I believe George Bush is the greatest recruiter for Al Qaeda in Al Qaeda's history," she said.
"You don't kill innocent Iraqi people, you don't fight a war on terror with a war of terror and that's what George Bush is doing and that's what [the Australian] Government is doing in support of George Bush.
"To say I'm a tool of the loopy Left, let me tell you almost 70 per cent of Americans agree with me."
She says her views have prompted death threats but she is not intimidated.
"I found on April 4, 2004 that there's worse things than dying," she said.
"One of the worse things is burying your oldest child.
"The death threats, the personal attacks, they don't bother me because if I can save one life by what I'm doing, it'll be worth it."
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