Editorial:

The price of winning an election with Beazley

Mark Latham has trumped one of Howard's campaign elements by 
appointing Kim Beazley to the ALP front bench and anointing him 
shadow Defence Minister. Howard has been attacking the ALP over 
its critical relationship with the United States and George Bush. 
Latham immediately received his reward from the US with friendly 
remarks from the US Ambassador to Australia, Tom Schieffer.

However, what Mark Latham has done by appointing Beazley is to 
undercut the perception that a Latham-led Labor Party Government 
would distance itself from the bellicose policies being pursued 
by the Bush administration.

Beazley is as much "at one" with the US as is Howard and Downer. 
He is a 110 percent US boy and this has been demonstrated over 
the many years he was a leading figure in the Hawke and Keating 
Labor Governments. Furthermore, during his two stints as Defence 
Minister in these governments he earned the nick-name of "Bomber 
Beazley" for his strident militarist attitudes. He is a fervent 
advocate of the US alliance and is just as ready to go "all the 
way with the USA" as is Howard or any of the previous Liberal 
Prime Ministers.

As far back as 1994 Beazley remarked that "You cannot see in 
history a power of global dominance which has acted as largely 
unselfishly as the United States".

Beazley has been prepared to show the US administration how it 
can better achieve its objectives and, for that, has earned many 
brownie points in the top echelons of the most reactionary 
circles of the US leadership.

By appointing Beazley to the position of shadow Defence Minister 
and, presumably, to that position should the ALP win the coming 
election, Latham will find that he has overshadowed his own 
leadership on a most important element of Australia's foreign 
policy.

It will be perceived in Asian countries as confirmation that 
Latham's assertion that the ALP wants to get closer to Asia is a 
sham, that an ALP government would remain just as solidly 
committed to pursue the wishes of the United States as is the 
Howard Government.

It also shows that Mark Latham is prepared to do anything to win 
the coming election. To those in the Labor Party who hoped that 
Latham's election as leader of the ALP against Kim Beazley would 
be something of a turning point will be disappointed.

Kim Beazley is a monumental loser having lost the election to 
Howard at the time of the "children overboard" crisis when he 
failed dismally to exploit the lying propaganda of the Howard 
leadership. The simple reason was that Beazley agreed with the 
Howard Government's attitude to refugees. He also lost the 
leadership to Simon Crean after that election and then to Mark 
Latham more recently.

In accepting his appointment to the front bench, Beazley said: 
"The reason why I have wanted to come back onto the front bench 
at this point in time is simply this: we are in a hard fight with 
fundamentalist terrorism, it demands the best efforts from 
absolutely all of us".

By this statement Beazley has committed himself (and the ALP) to 
the central issue of the Bush administration — the phoney "war 
on terrorism". This "war" is the cover under which the US is 
pursuing its long-held determination to achieve world domination. 
It is a cause that has to be continually ratcheted up with the 
arrest of alleged terrorists, allegations that this or that 
target is to be bombed and, generally, by creating continual fear 
in the community.

Mark Latham has also identified himself as a supporter of the US 
"war on terrorism" saying that a Latham Labor Government pledges 
itself to deploy Australian troops against any "identifiable 
source" of a terrorist attack on the US. He overlooks the reality 
that it is the US leadership that is the main terrorist in 
today's world.

This course will not lead to Australian security and good 
relations with other countries but to increasing isolation and 
the perception that Australia remains the US deputy sheriff in 
the region and in the world.