Lost opportunities for Australian progressives
Why aren't Australians more outraged about non-existent Iraqi WMDs? As this Sydney Morning Herald article points out, compared to what's going on in Washington and London, there's been basically no fall-out in Canberra over this issue.
This is surprising considered how strong the opposition to this war was in Australia. Before the war, opinion polls showed a large majority of Australians opposed the miltary action in Iraq. The many public demonstrations against the war indicated the level of opposition - and that this was a very broad-based mainstream opposition.
There was a strong view that John Howard, Australia's sycophantic Prime Minister was vulnerable on this issue - for dragging the country into this crusade, and misleading the country about this commitment. I was in Australia in January and heard him say that he hadn't yet decided on Australia's commitment, even as Australian troops were being sent to the Persian Gulf.
One explanation is that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) has been just as timid and ineffectual an opposition party as the Democrats in the US. In fact, during the past month, they have been even worse than their American counterparts, because they have been preoccupied with the Simon Crean / Kim Beazley struggle over the party leadership.
It is really sad that at a time when they could really be punishing the John Howard over dragging the country into war under false pretences, as well as the whole Governor-General debacle, they are in the midst of this pointless leadership spill. It would be different if I knew that real policy differences were at stake in this contest. But the internal debate is primarily about form ("that Kim Beazley has a better rapport with the Australian people than Simon Crean") rather than substance. I know that Kim Beazley is at the very Right of the ALP (think Joe Lieberman, except that Beazley has already lost 2 elections to John Howard) and so generally I would prefer Simon Crean, but if Crean is gutless, it doesn't really matter what he thinks, does it?
Oh well, at least Australia has a viable and growing green party, and an electoral system which minimizes the "wasted vote" syndrome.
9:57:48 PM 
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