Sunday, August 29, 2004
The Australian election will be a decisive moment in gauging the future of America's core alliances. Just as the defeat of the Spanish conservatives augured a new shift away from the U.S. in European politics, a defeat of the pro-American John Howard would have serious consequences along the Pacific Rim.
I don't know that the Labor Party would forswear any collaboration with the United States, if elected, but it would certainly be far more conditional in its support of us. Australia is one of our best friends in the world, having a far longer history of close collaboration with the United States than Spain. A wavering government in Canberra would augur future desertions, perhaps even in that bastion of special relationships: the United Kingdom.
Stay tuned.
I don't know that the Labor Party would forswear any collaboration with the United States, if elected, but it would certainly be far more conditional in its support of us. Australia is one of our best friends in the world, having a far longer history of close collaboration with the United States than Spain. A wavering government in Canberra would augur future desertions, perhaps even in that bastion of special relationships: the United Kingdom.
Stay tuned.
