From a netfriend:

17/4/3

Mr Howard may have thought he had no choice but to go to war, but surely the same request would have gone to New Zealand, Canada and other English-speaking nations, yet only 1 responded, the one that had already indicated that it was prepared to play by the rules of the USA on other issues, even when that meant losing the game (eg Trade issues, and now which companies benefit from the reconstruction of Iraq).

Since 1975 when the USA gave South Viet Nam away to the North Vietnamese, the USA has consistently shown that it will support an ally and friend only as long as it is in the best interests of the USA to do so. New Zealand understood this when it asked the USA not to send nuclear powered or armed vessels to her shores, and then paid a heavy diplomatic price. Eg when David Lange went to the USA, he was snubbed. Canada has clearly understood this also, by not joining the coalition of the willing, even when it may have been in their best interest to do so. That Canada has not been treated as New Zealand was is because it is not in the interest of the USA to retaliate against them. If that changed, the Canadians are clearly aware that their involvement in Iraq would have no bearing on the way the USA would treat them. My guess is that if Australia actually needed the USA to take a stand for us against an enemy, the USA would weigh up the pros and cons first, and would not necessarily come to our aid, particularly if that enemy was capable of taking the war to the shores of California, as the North Koreans seem capable of doing.

That Australia has joined in this war, without the financial assurances given to Jordan and without any promise that the USA will loosen its import quotas or allow Australian exporters and construction companies to compete on equal terms for contracts in Iraq, is evidence that in Australia ideology has given way to self-interest, something the Americans have never allowed to happen.

In East Timor Australia did something commendable. To support them, they asked their friends for help. New Zealand sent troops, as did other nations who could ill afford to do so. The USA reasoned that its relationship with Indonesia was more important than the East Timorese, and sent, a patrol boat that was already in the region, and a radar-equipped truck with a company of soldiers. Hardly equal to Australia's commitment to Iraq.

This war serves no ones interests, apart from those of John Howard. For Mr Howard to get a week on the ranch, we are paying several hundred million dollars. And he can't even go surfing!