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The Forum > Article Comments > What luck! Washington neo-cons pre-approve Kevin Rudd! > Comments

What luck! Washington neo-cons pre-approve Kevin Rudd! : Comments

By John Hickman, published 1/6/2007

Australian voters should be delighted to learn that their probable choice in the 2007 election has been pre-approved by the ideological powers that be in Washington.

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I wonder what Boot would make of a democratic victory. Presumably that's also just the decision of the ungrateful masses who don't know what's good for them - not, y'know, disappointment with an administration that has made mistake after mistake...
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Friday, 1 June 2007 9:21:53 AM
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You have just talked me out of voting for Rudd, looks like informal.
Posted by alanpoi, Friday, 1 June 2007 9:33:47 AM
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Re John Howard "His success is his downfall" Our PM has succeeded in pricing housing out of the reach of middle and lower income citizens. This success has had several poorly understood causes but making the well off even richer is one as it allows them to seek control of even more assets including more homes. Jackie Kelly married to an orthodontist is a good example. What is an orthodontist but an instrument fitter working inside a customers mouth, grossly overpaid to do so, and now on a much reduced tax rate besides.
The present method of contolling the volume of money is another substantial cause of the housing debacle. Banks now gouge the population with exhorbitant fees so that they make profits well in excess of that necessary to pay a reasonable dividend. The excess profit flows to their capital adequacy base so that they can create substantially more loans and thus further force up the price of assets.
Inflation is the loss of purchasing power of money. How much less valuable has our money become when it comes to buying a home on some other asset such as a bank share? The Commonwealth Bank is not really worth more than it was when the populace owned it. Its just priced higher because our money is less valuable in asset terms. The CPI has been kept low because politicians believe we can pay workers slave rates of pay if they cannot be seen because they are in overseas countries. No doubt in terms of his own ideology John Howard has been a rip roaring success.
Posted by Foyle, Friday, 1 June 2007 9:54:39 AM
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Do they know Kevin Rudd’s diplomatic background? Firstly, he is a Sinophile for heavens sake. And he is a pragmatist. No confrontationalist or containment oriented China policies for him. America can forget about an automatic commitment of Australian forces in the event of a China-Taiwan conflict too. Even John Howard was at best lukewarm over that possibility. Good thing too.

America has nothing to fear from any difference of opinion from a Rudd led Australia over foreign policy specifics however. I see no dramatic threat to ANZUS. Strategic practicality is the order of the day.
Posted by My name is Dylan, Friday, 1 June 2007 10:46:12 AM
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"So exactly what is America’s hold over Australia? “[M]ost folks Down Under, Labor or Liberal, know that, in the final analysis, their survival and safety rest with their American mates,” explains Boot. “Just as America came to the rescue in 1942, with Douglas MacArthur taking charge when Japanese invasion seemed imminent, so Australians count on America to bail them out of any future crisis.”"

Unfortunately he's sort of right. Although the yanks motive for "coming to the rescue" was not actually to come to OUR rescue, it is what it amounted to for us and it is what our PM at the time was requesting of them.
Because they did effectively protect us from the spectre of invasion during WW2, i think we have this idea that we still need America to be our big brother and protect us, and we still have a bit of a lingering fear of being invaded or taken over by another culture.
It's really quite irrational and we actually don't need America to protect us at all, but unfortunately that underlying fear exists and therefore we cling do the pant leg of the US and enter into messy situations like Iraq without any real reasoned, rational thought bar the "we must support our mates" blind logic.
Posted by Donnie, Friday, 1 June 2007 12:07:23 PM
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i used to laugh at the poor thais, having to enter the kings presence on their belly. but they're not the only ones. ozzies are on their knees to pollies, and oz pollie's heads are stuck up uncle sam's bum.

i truly wonder how the kiwis avoided this. much higher percentage of scot's genes, for a guess<viz 'braveheart'>. or maybe they just figured nobody would want to bother them. or maybe hollywood buying up all those disaster bolthole homes offers protection from the usmc. it's a puzzle..
Posted by DEMOS, Friday, 1 June 2007 2:02:17 PM
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Sounds like Boot is doing the same thing many conservative Australian commentators are doing at the moment - jumping on anything that offers them a glimmer of hope.

You have to feel sorry for the poor sods. It must be awful hard work to maintain their illusions about Iraq, China, American exceptionalism and the downright infallibility of neo-conservatism with so much going against them.

Democracy is a hazardous business for the mighty. More power to it.
Posted by chainsmoker, Friday, 1 June 2007 2:19:05 PM
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Those damned Yankees, saved everyone's backsides in a couple of world wars, stood up to those paragons of psychopathy Stalin and Mao, and now, curse them, are not going to lie down before a mob of murderers who have stated their goal to destroy the freedoms we here in the west take for granted.
It's my understanding that the neo-cons grew from a bunch of left-wing academics in the U.S.ofA. I don't know much about them beyond their staunch belief that democracy can be willed on others by force if necessary.
Anyone got more on them?
DEMOS, what is your utopian dream?
Posted by palimpsest, Friday, 1 June 2007 6:43:58 PM
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I think you are a bit off the mark with this Yanks to the rescue, they only have to consider, there is no ironclad guarntee that they will defend us.
When it all boils down they will do what is in their best interests.
If for political or economic reasons they don't want offend our opponents they will do nothing.
So humping their leg will be useless, Canada and Mexico don't blindly follow neither should we.
Posted by alanpoi, Friday, 1 June 2007 11:38:03 PM
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Who truly cares what America thinks? a country that has twice elected a man not unlike the father of Bart Simpson?
There has to be more to the anti Labor plans than to constantly try to find something to dislike about Rudd.
Rudd is on the way to a historic victory and history will record him with far more kindness than Bush's foolish friend John Howard.
Posted by Belly, Saturday, 2 June 2007 6:34:18 AM
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So glad that the US approves, I was actually quite worried. Now that I am assured that they will continue to treat us as well under Labor as we were under Liberal, I look forward to the next FTA.
Posted by enkew, Saturday, 2 June 2007 7:06:58 AM
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Let's get a few things straight. (1) Australia went to war in Iraq because they need to have the US on side for (a) trade and (b) defence purposes. The ALP would have done just what the Coalition did but, conveniently for them, they did not have to take the decision.
(2) The ALP will pull us out when they get the nod from the US.
(3) China is bankrupt but still wields enormous power so we will continue to prop it up in our own interests (remember if China sneezes it is the rest of the world which catches cold).
(4) For all the fancy talk about "climate change policies" from the ALP they will also have to deal with the economic consequences - and Australians have not yet shown any desire to lower their standard of living to introduce the necessary changes and the same is true of the Americans.
I don't imagine the Washington neo-cons care much who is in power in Australia. They will still be able to do things the way they want to do them - and Kevin Rudd will find out he can do nothing about it.
Posted by Communicat, Saturday, 2 June 2007 12:05:59 PM
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One of the main reasons I did not like Howard was his Americo-philia:
It seems like the week that he spent stuck in New-York after 9/11 was deeply engraved in his soul.

But if Rudd has become the new American toyboy, and since the curse of the FTA cannot be lifted anyway, then Howard may still be the preferrable choice.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Saturday, 2 June 2007 10:59:38 PM
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the yanks didn't come to 'rescue' oz from nips. they didn't move a muscle until after they were attacked. at that point, oz became a convenient staging point for initial resistance.

palimpsest, it's true i'd like to improve australian society by putting the ordinary people in an over-sight role in the management of the country. ideally, ozzies should be able to vote directly for minister candidates, so we could have good environment policies, good good treasury policies, good foreign policies, etc.

now, we can only vote once, and generally choose the party that looks like putting more money in our pocket. so we're lumbered with second rate people who only get in power because of their party, rather than their policies.

changing the australian constitution is a big project, but there is plenty of evidence that the current situation doesn't work - if the goal is prosperity and survival of society at large.
Posted by DEMOS, Sunday, 3 June 2007 7:24:35 AM
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Consider this scenario.China lands 1000 old 747 jumbos laden with 500,000 armed troops at various Australia airports and takes our major cities.What are the Yanks going to do?Send in their troops just like Iraq and suffer major loses or threaten China with a nuclear war or do nothing and trade off our freedoms to appease the peace mentality of the American people.It would be more likely be the latter.

We need a better defence system than just relying on the word and good will of the Yanks.When push come to shove,they will sell us down the drain just like Saddham whom they created to control Iraq.

It is nothing personal that I have against the ordinary American people,but just the reality of Global and national US politics that makes us small fish very expendable.
Posted by Arjay, Sunday, 3 June 2007 9:24:38 PM
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Howard will not be defeated by his own success, he will be defeated by his failure to listen to his own people. Had he shown more reserve towards the unilateral invasion of Iraq and didn't lie his way out of a big mistake, then he would deserve our respect.

The economy is not a reflection of Howard, it is a reflection of the world economy. It is not the miracle that the sellers of snake oil claim it to be. New Zealand is doing just as well as Australia under a Labor Government and they didn't have to go to Iraq.

Most western economies have done reasonably well within the last 10 years. Was it some kind of miracle under Howard and Costello? Some reforms may have tweaked the peeks but generally it would have been similar under a continued Keating Government. Remember the "recession we had to have" was really a world recession. Just as the economic prosperity now is generally a global prosperity.

Also, minority groups have not benefited from the Howard Government. Pensioners are worse off now than they were. Gays and Lesbians have all but been pushed backwards into a community recession. Seen Oxford Street lately? It is not a coincidence that their businesses are suffering.

So Howard "thought he was the King of America" but it was a "big mistake".

The damage has been done, the battle lost and won. The King is dead, long live the King. Will justice allow us to prosper or will we slide into economic oblivion? Will life return to Australia with more optimism socially as well as economically?

We all love the lights of a casino, but the day after, someone has to clean the mess.

That reminds me of the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1yry55waS4&mode=related&search=

Enjoy, its a good song.
Posted by saintfletcher, Monday, 4 June 2007 12:25:21 AM
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