The reality is that we need the US Since China and India with their burgeoning populations wouldn't blink twice at the prospect of a large almost uninhabited land mass that can be taken with no consequences.We either have an alliance with the US,or develop our own nuclear weapons.That is the reason why we unfortunately are in Iraq.

I've heard from two separate sources that the US is being flogged in Iraq.Apparently they have lost 20,000 and enemy fighters are coming from all over the Muslim World.This is their second Vietnam.Being the World's policeman is pissing many people off and sending the US broke.The UN is useless.They are between a rock and an impossible place.

It’s true we need a major strategic ally but the trouble is that the USA demonstrates little wisdom in its global political decisions.

Iraq was supplied with weapons. Osama Bin Ladin was reported to have been recruited as an agent by the CIA

CIA support for the coup that first brought Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party to power, and the US supplies of chemical and biological warfare materials to Hussein's government in the 1980s. http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/histindex.htm

Australia is going out on a limb with its support of USA which is alienating itself with the rest of the world. Australia needs to look closely at whether we should continue with an open ended support for the alliance. I’d feel happier about limiting support for the US/ Australian alliance and supporting an alliance with a country that had a better global track record than that demonstrated by the USA.

Not easily done I agree but we could let USA know we aren't necessarily with them all the way as it was in the days of Lyndon Byrd Johnson when the slogan became "All the way with LBJ" which got us into the Vietnam war.

Sandgroper,I could see the uneasy glance of John Howard as George Bush slapped him on the back with the conviction of a conquerer rather than an ally.John Howard does what is pragmatic and correct for Australia's prosperity.It may not be popular,but serves our long term interests.There should be more countries backing the US in the Middle East since democracy and peace in the Middle East means peace for the rest of the world.They have 65% of the world's oil and have a responsibility to sell it at market prices ,since the west have provided them with science,technology and access to our markets.If Saddham,an American generated dictator,was allowed to control the Middle East,neither Europe nor Japan would stand idly by and be starved of energy.
In many ways the Europeans are a bunch of hypocrits because they let the US do the dirty work and reap the benefits of a stable ,cheap energy supply.