Communist Party of Australia

Ever since the sacking of the Whitlam Labor government in the mid-1970s successive Australian governments have emphasised the importance of the US-Australia alliance. Current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a point of the alliance being the centre-piece of Labor’s foreign policy during the 2007 election campaign. One of the arguments used against Labor during the election campaign was the close personal friendship between Prime Minister John Howard and US president George W Bush.

But this personal relationship, surrounded in the mythology that it made Australia more secure and influential, was one area that pollsters found gave the Coalition an advantage over Labor. However, with headlines like the Sydney Morning Herald’s “New best friends have a great meeting of the minds” following Rudd’s meeting with Barack Obama, that “advantage” was put to rest last week.

That “great meeting of minds” in Washington generated all the favourable media any deputy sheriff of the US could want. But deputy sheriff of the US, the self-declared role of former PM John Howard, is not the public title that Kevin Rudd is seeking. There are new lines to the same tune; Rudd is just as committed as ever to military and other co-operation with the US as his predecessor was. The difference is that Rudd wants to be a world leader, playing a higher profile part on the world stage, whether it be in the context of global recession, climate change, nuclear disarmament or good governance.

The new approach to Afghanistan, what Obama called a “civilian surge”, would place heavy emphasis on “soft power”; training local police and other security forces. The target is to double the number of Afghan security forces to 400,000 so that they are capable of doing much of the work being done by foreign military forces. It also includes a further extension of the war into Pakistan. The new plan also includes development aid.

The US is seeking to increase the number of foreign military troops and other personnel in Afghanistan, including from Australia. A recent Newspoll indicates that more than two-thirds of Australians oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan. There appears little doubt that the government will agree. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith indicated recently on the ABC’s Lateline program that the government would be “quite happy to contemplate further contributions on the civilian capacity training front. A lot of effort needs to be made by the international community to train and mentor both the army and the police force – Australia plays its part in that, and that is ongoing”.

Obama, softening the ground for an increase in US, Australian and other forces in Afghanistan, said “I think the American and the Australian people also recognise that in order for us to keep our homelands safe, in order to maintain our way of life, in order to ensure order on the international scene, we can’t allow vicious killers to have their way and we’re going to do what’s required to ensure that does not happen.”

When the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 with the assistance of Australia and other foreign forces, it had plans for a permanent military presence. Afghanistan is of strategic military, political and economic importance to the US. Geographically, it fits with the US’s plans to encircle both Russia and China and also borders Iran where US and NATO plans are well advanced for war. It is strategically located to three large oil reserves in Central Asia, the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea. Far from fighting terrorism or bringing democracy, the US’s war has returned Afghanistan to the dark ages and spurred the growth of fundamentalism and the threat of terrorism.

Any threat to Australia from “these vicious killers” arises directly out of Australia’s participation in the US invasion. Australia’s security interests lie with a non-aligned foreign policy, one based on friendship, mutual co-operation, non-intervention and recognition of the right of nations to self-determination and development. Covering up the deputy sheriff badge while strutting the world stage will not bring peace or security. It is time to really rip off the deputy sheriff badge, and pursue an independent foreign policy in the interests of the people and the planet.

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