The govt is looking at including Aus in the US's proposed missile defense shield. This all looks good. Anything that strengthens our strategic ties with the US and entrenches our cooperation in expertize and intelligence is great. This is going some way towards allaying my fears that Rudd wants to make Aus a Red carpet for his mates in China BUT I am caution on two points.
Firstly, What about Japan? Are they in this too? Maybe there are too close (geographically) to China and Russia and a deployment there would be too provocative. Nobody wants to piss them off on purpose but we have to recognise that Japan is a democracy and China isn't. Japan is STILL our biggest trading partner BTW.
Secondly, I lived in Britain under Blair and i always supported his assertive foreign policy to the hilt but at the same time he lead his country to domestic ruin. OK not ruin but definitely decay. Rudd is flexing his strategic muscles to buy off some conservatives, and it's working with me, but we can't give him a free hand to implement his socialist bureacracy - a top-down tyranny of performance targets that sucks the life and the independence out of this most unsupervised of countries.
PS I can't help it. I have to mention Howard. Rudd's embracing of US cooperation at Pine Gap would be just another win for the Howard legacy and another nail in the coffin of the (non-economic) Left in this country. Let us not forget how Rudd won, by being Howard minus WorkChoices. The rest must stay! Howard changed this country forever for the better. He is still working his benevolent magic and benefiting us, now and for years to come.
What a top bloke.
