You show a large degree of polital bias in your article Bruce. That's not a criticism as such, but a demonstration, bias is the key point in Politics. Politics is all and sundry about bias!

Australia now as much as ever, needs America as an alliy. The problem with trump as President, is his stated contractionist intentions!
This will not be good for Australia. This will be good though, for expansionist Chinese, already making a comfortable bed in Australia, and Asia generally.

SEAsia is in peril again, not from the Japanese, as in 1943, but from the Chinese, with complete facilitation from acquessing Australian politicians.

I hope you don't live to regret your anti American bias Bruce!

Well Bruce, Menzies was a "redneck".

Were you around when he was in power?

Before he came in butter, petrol and many other products were rationed and in our street in Hurstville there were 2 motor vehicles in the whole 2 mile length.

5 years of Menzies and there was no rationing and closer to 2 cars per home than 2 cars per street. He did a lot better for Australia than the people you obviously prefer. -- Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot etc. With them there was no refugee problem. They killed the refugees by the tens of millions before they could get into a boat.
Your lifetime of living off the public teat has fouled your mind.

I'm no more enamored of Mr Trump than you Bruce? But the only thing flawed here is your biased analysis?

Mr Trump Might win and dissolve the alliance; and pigs might fly? And where else in this world will they find the wide open empty spaces so critical for their essential war game military exercises?

Even so we could do worse than review a relationship that arguably treats us little better than a impoverished southern state full of poor white trash?

Rational folk would rescind the laser pulsed light method of uranium enrichment Mr Rudd gifted to the Americans!

We need to become far more self reliant and self sufficient! And able to defend ourselves against the world, if our ally tends to be unreliable or is only there if they are allowed to buy Australia and our quite massive resources, using their thrice maxed out credit cards or virtually worthless letters of credit? With blood sucking friends like that, who needs enemies?

In conclusion let me say that if D Trump wins the presidential race after putting so many voters offside, half of them republicans! I'll walk backwards to Burke.
Alan B.

Brucey you fail in your latest attempt to parrot the scatter-gun style of Pilger. Such Socialist Slop Sporting Suspect hairpiece https://youtu.be/WYCH1Ylncxc

On "red neck fear of a loss of economic and social standing" you realise you're talking about most of the OLO chatterati, matey.

Trying to turn Turnball into a Trump Chump is going a little too far even for Otto von Kissinger like Statesmen - like Moi!

Naughty, Naughty

Not quite Pilger , Bruce , but you are getting the hang of it !.

Complete silence on our alternatives to the USA , I notice.

What do you suggest , Russia, China , India , Iran or do just become an Super Power ourselves.. you know.. with all that uranium etc ?

Perhaps, we could put up a "for sale" sign and then emigrate to NZ ?

Bruce, thanks for writing on foreign policy. It is a topic that is conspicuous by its absence in the current election. Neither the Labor nor Coalition parties have a coherent policy. They appear to rely heavily upon the US, completely ignoring the great paradox that the late Malcolm Fraser pointed out.
That reliance has got us into one illegal war after another. As James Browns' essay in the Quarterly Essay pointed out, there could easily have been another disaster with Abbott mooting 3000 Australian troops in Eastern Ukraine. Fortunately wiser heads prevailed.
We are now busily involving ourselves in American provocations in the South China Sea, only a small part of which, both Australian and American, have been reported by our mainstream media.
There is an alternative foreign policy available. It will require courage and intelligence, and the ability to ignore the ignorant blathering found in too many responses to articles such as yours.