Ditch the US alliance'

[cal04]

FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham believed the US alliance should be ditched and called it "the last manifestation of the White Australia mentality". The Latham Diaries reveal his in-principle support for the alliance during last year's election was completely insincere and driven by electoral politics. Mr Latham mocks public support for the alliance and dismisses with contempt anybody who thinks it serves a purpose. The Diaries verify the judgment President George W. Bush made of Mr Latham - that his election would have put the alliance in serious jeopardy. "It's just another form of neo-colonialism," Mr Latham says of the alliance.

Writing after the election, Mr Latham says that he should go public and question the long-term need for the alliance, but laments that this "would turn the party upside down" and that "the Big Mac faction would go ballistic". The Diaries reveal an extreme view of foreign policy and of Australia's role in the world. Mr Latham opposes every war Australia has fought, except World War II. He blames the US alliance for dragging Australia into unnecessary conflicts. His preferred foreign policy model is based on New Zealand's. He writes that if Australia prefers being "an American colony under (John) Howard, that's a nation not worth leading". He accuses the Prime Minister and Mr Bush of being cowards, saying "they wouldn't fight themselves, of course, but they readily send other people's children to fight in their name".

In his diary entry of December 1, 2004, six weeks before he resigned, he says: "The Americans have made us a bigger target in the war against terror -- Australian lives are certain to be sacrificed on the altar of the US alliance. "Look at New Zealand. They have their foreign policy right, and it's the safest country on earth. Labor should be the anti-war party of Australian politics. Other than World War II, every war this country has fought was disconnected from our national interests. All those young Australian lives lost in faraway lands, the folly of imperialism and conservative jingoism. "I detest war and the meatheads who volunteer to kill other human beings. The US alliance is a funnel that draws us into unnecessary wars; first Vietnam and then Iraq."

The Diaries reveal a far more visceral anti-Americanism and a deeper streak of pacificism than was apparent from his public comments as Labor leader. Mr Latham sees the US alliance and an independent Australia as completely incompatible. "A timid, insular nation at the bottom of the world, too frightened to embrace an independent foreign policy," he says. "Politically, why does the alliance survive? Because a significant number of Australians still think we need an insurance policy against invasion by Indonesia, that's why. Poor old Indonesia. They can barely govern themselves these days, let alone invade us. The alliance is the last manifestation of the White Australia mentality." Mr Latham is convinced that "the Americans need us more than we need them". He says Pine Gap is "vital to their international security network". He claims that the Americans "restrict our capacity to trade and integrate with Asia" and that "one day their trouble with China will be our trouble"

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16629679%255E601,00.html

[pinto]

1. This piece of the quote is moving, and very telling.

In his diary entry of December 1, 2004, six weeks before he resigned, he says: "The Americans have made us a bigger target in the war against terror -- Australian lives are certain to be sacrificed on the altar of the US alliance. "Look at New Zealand. They have their foreign policy right, and it's the safest country on earth. Labor should be the anti-war party of Australian politics. Other than World War II, every war this country has fought was disconnected from our national interests. All those young Australian lives lost in faraway lands, the folly of imperialism and conservative jingoism. "I detest war and the meatheads who volunteer to kill other human beings. The US alliance is a funnel that draws us into unnecessary wars; first Vietnam and then Iraq."

thanks for the post....

[zum]

5. The contrast

between Australia's and NZ's attitude to the US is dramatic. There was much talk of US influence and possibly financial assistance to the conservative political side through right-wing religious fundamentalist entities in the weeks prior to NZ's recent general election. The US ambassador to NZ was recently replaced and the outgoing ambassador loosed off a broadside about NZ's policy regarding no nukes in it's harbours, which bars all US warships because the US is unwilling to divulge which vessels have nuclear capability or not. The leader of the NZ opposition had said that his party in government would reconsider that policy, as that would pave the way for the resurrection of New Zealand's participation in the ANZUS alliance. Alexander Downer echoed the outgoing ambassador. I'm quite sure that New Zealanders nowadays breathe a sigh of relief that the New Zealand government of the end of the nineteenth century replied "thanks, but no thanks" when offered a place in the federation of Australian States. Australia's political system does not allow representation of it's geographic, political and social diversity. It is really designed to offer middle ground representation, but is too easily hijacked by ideological extremism whose mantra is "Mandate, mandate" simply because their party happens to be in power. Latham would have taken that avenue too, and his journals reveal what he was prepared to do, but didn't bother to tell either his electorate or his colleagues before his life took other turns. However, the way that his notions are being attacked by his former parliamentary and party colleagues is interesting. They all seem convinced that he was a dangerous man with his hitherto unrevealed ideas dangerous to the welfare of Australia. That's what all the pollies and media types are bleating, but no-one's ASKING us what we think about those ideas. Latham's book is apparently selling well, perhaps he should've included a response sheet for readers, all of the buyers can't be pollies and their staff. Bear in mind that when Labour lost the last election, none of us knew what he was REALLY thinking. Could it be that he toed the party line to try to reach a position from where he could really change things? One of his mentors, Gough Whitlam, tried that for a brief period...

[Matilda]

2. Everything that Latham wrote was true,

but Kelly is writing this as part of the right-wing of politics,
and no doubt the Howard supporters will weigh in with condemnation
of Latham once again.

It's a pity that Latham has shredded what he had left of his
credibility this week - while I don't doubt that much of what he
says about politics and Labor in particular is true, he's also
clearly demonstrated in both the Denton and Lateline interviews that
he is a deeply troubled man and in complete denial when it comes to
his own faults and misjudgments. I think his attack comes from his
pain more than from spite, but he has revealed a very petty and
emotionally immature side to his nature which his detractors will
seize on, and I'm afraid the good policy arguments he advances are
going to be lost because the gossip and backstabbing parts of his
diaries are all that are getting attention.

I think perhaps Latham might have succeeded better as a policy
adviser to a Labor leader, because his passion and intellect are
sound, but he lacked the inner toughness and cool judgment needed
to carry his ideas through.

[cal04]

3. Criticism of Aust-US alliance warranted: expert

An international relations expert says although former Labor leader Mark Latham's view of Australia's alliance with the US is over-simplified, it should not be entirely dismissed. In his book, The Latham Diaries, the former Opposition leader calls the alliance "the last manifestation of the White Australia mentality" and "another form of neo-colonialism".

Dr Michael McKinley, from the Australian National University (ANU), says while Mr Latham is right to criticise the alliance for dominating Australia's security policy, he has oversimplified the relationship. "I think there is a problem there because successive governments, whether they be Coalition or Labor, have always understood the alliance to be something worthwhile on a daily basis," he said.
"There's about seven or eight benefits which are thought to accrue to Australia almost every day of the week by being in the alliance."

Dr McKinley says Mr Latham's comments are extreme.
"The alliance is something that needs to be very strongly criticised for the way in which it over-determines Australian security policy and over-determines the Australian national interest," he said. "So Mark Latham is saying things with which you can broadly disagree with but take significant disagreement with just a few elements of."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1462647.htm

[Violet_Crumble]

4. I was in one of Michael McKinley's IR classes last year...

I get so used to the media trotting out every tom, dick and harry and calling them an expert, that it's refreshing to see someone who actually is an expert called one..

If Mark Latham didn't go into any more detail than that on his views on Australia's alliance with the US, then he was really simplifying things. But I also saw an article from yesterday where a Labor shadow minister called Latham 'anti-American' and said they wouldn't have voted him leader if they'd known he was 'anti-American'. That 'anti-American' comment is a dimwitted and simplistic tool normally used by the conservatives, and every time I see the ALP stooping to their level, I get more convinced I did the right thing voting Green last election...

Violet...

[zum]

6. What

are the benefits that are "thought to" accrue so regularly and who is "thought to" benefit by them?