Mirko, a nice essay on loyalty, but what does loyalty have to do with Australia-US relations and Iraq, apart from the retro-fitted speech of Alexander Downer's?

The Australian Government's justification for partnering with the US in Iraq has changed more often than I've had hot breakfasts.

Now you expect me to believe that "loyalty" had anything to do with it?

What about perceived self-interest in maintaining the good favour of a great and powerful ally? Don't you think that had rather more to do with the decision, and rather cheapens Downer's posturing on the topic of "loyalty"?

Surpised that one got past you, Mirko.

Best not to talk about loyalty, and labradors, in international politics - it leads to connotations of world leaders as dogs, and you know the sort of images that conjures up in the fevered imaginations of the world's newspaper cartoonists....

One could exsert from an article a very simple reality: a non-native-to-UK background stipulates Mirco to demonstrate more loyalty to Australia then overseas-foreign-crown-obsessed local PM.

There is no such thing like “loyalty” in politics but a calculation of options where “mateship” (mafia style factually annihilating any local competitiveness relations grounding foreign affairs, as more comprehensible outside Australia) rules.

I think Pete pretty much nailed it on the head with ANZUS (or AUS as it is now). The ANZUS Treaty has for as long as I can remember been Australia's long-term insurance policy. The yanks will help us should Indonesia again acquire naval vessels sufficient for an invasion.

The Government, by sending our troops to Iraq, is simply paying the premiums on the insurance policy.

And Pete, I think with East Timor the American's only publicly offered about 2 battalions of marines. It was the aircraft-carrier tasks forces and logistical support that propably told Indonesia they weren't mucking around.

We would all to well to remember that loyalty is like respect. Both can be demanded but in reality have to be earned. They are reciprocal relationships, whether government to government; people to people or government to people. Politicians of all stripe, along with those whose IQ is higher than their collar size should ponder on the truth of what amounts to an iron law.

Of all the sins, betrayal is rarely mentioned, as it doesn't figure in the Deadly 7. However, betrayal of your country, friends and your own principles prove that it is by far the most deadly of all. Howver, as sins are largely considered irrelevant in this secular society, it follows that there is plenty about.

I think our part in the Iraq adventure had a lot more to do with a pending Free Trade Agreement and a bit of political sycophancy than sticking by our mates.

Remember when we asked the US to help us with troops on the ground during the East Timor period? They declined because it was not in their own interests.

Who rushed in to take all the wheat contracts when AWB got caught out?

Which country has all the Iraq rebuilding contracts to itself?

No hint of loyalty there.

After frequent discussions with a contact in the USA, I can confirm that almost all the Howard/Bush mutual backslapping we see on TV is for our own domestic consumption - it hardly rates a mention in the US media.

Politics works on pragmatism, not loyalty.

What about loyalty to your principles.

The US has bent the definition of "torture" to suit its own purposes, for everyone else in the civilized world it is a crime against humanity.

It has not acknowledged the rule of law in the international arena by refusing to submit to the ICC and initiating an illegal war of aggression not sanctioned by the UN.

It has thrown out any notion of judicial fairness with the Guantanamo camp and trial process.

In the world of international relations realpolitik and self interest rule the day. There is precious little loyalty - country to country or to principles.

To think otherwise is very naive. It makes for nice warm pronouncements and mutual love-ins by the respective foreign ministers and other senior politicians from all sides but, when national self interest is concerned, loyalty will be quickly brushed aside.

There is nothing wrong with this, of course, this is the way it has always been and, as Mirko has argued elsewhere, the US is the "best show in town". Just be careful how much you actually believe in the warm pronouncements.