Howard's End
The supporters of George W. Bush's War on Terror have been falling by the wayside for quite some time now.
Aznar: gone. Berlusconi: gone. Blair: gone.
And now, the last of the true believers, a man who not only supported the war in Iraq but was - until recently - a man who had resisted efforts to curb global warming; now, even John Howard has fallen on his sword with a defeat in the Australian elections which has seen him swept from power after eleven years as Prime Minister. His defeat has been so comprehensive that it looks likely that he might also lose the seat he has held for 33 years as an MP in Benelong.
He is replaced by Labor party leader Kevin Rudd, a man about whom very little is known, other than the fact that he is not John Howard.
His victory marked a humiliating end to the career of Howard after voters turned on their aging Prime Minister with ferocity. The scale of the 'Rudd-slide' surpassed all expectations, with the Labor party winning more seats than it had hoped for. The new leader said Australia was 'moving forward to plan, prepare and embrace the future'.The only person still in office who is publicly associated with the Iraq war is now George Bush, and he holds office with a disapproval rating that is possibly going to set new records for an American President.
Howard's defeat was finally delivered by the key defection of the group that had for so long supported him - the 'Aussie battler' - the disillusioned blue-collar voters that Howard had won over from Labor in his sweeping victory in 1996 -renamed 'Howard's battlers'.
One by one, the men who embraced Bush's "with us or against us" reaction to 9-11 have fallen from grace. Perhaps, if they had concentrated on rooting out al Qaeda, they would have retained the support of their electorates. Who can tell? But what seems obvious is that the side step into Iraq - a country that had nothing to do with the events on 9-11 - has exhausted the patience of electorates worldwide, perhaps due to it's lack of visible success and the promise of politicians that it must go on for years to come with no end in sight.
And whilst it is impossible to put Howard's defeat solely down to the Iraq war - and other positions that he shared with Bush - it is undeniable that his successor is promising a new direction for Australia.
What is also undeniable, as we have witnessed with Gordon Brown here in the UK, is that the new leaders will be very wary of associating themselves too closely with an American President whose friendship appears to be so toxic to one's political health.Rudd is expected to hit the ground running on issues such as climate change, marking his first weeks in power by ratifying the Kyoto protocol and heading Australia's delegation to the United Nations climate change conference in Bali. His attendance will signify a huge shift in Australia's attitude towards environmental issues, overturning Howard's boycott of the protocol.
Rudd has also promised to bring back Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq in a phased withdrawal.
So Howard is the last of the leaders who supported Bush's mindset to be removed from office and Bush himself now limps towards the finish line, with a US public that not only "doubts that U.S. foreign policy is working", but who are "increasingly skeptical about whether anything can turn the situation around".
The US public appear to share the views of other electorates around the world, that the current plan is simply not working. Against that backdrop one really has to wonder what hopes Giuliani realistically has of being elected by promising "more of the same". The Bush mindset appears to have been comprehensively rejected worldwide, and John Howard's landslide defeat is merely the most recent example of this.
UPDATE:
And here he is, spouting the line that a vote for Obama would be welcomed by al Qaeda.
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2 comments:
I guess I'm a little confused as to how inane comments like Howard's - and most other politicians' - constitutes news. It certainly constitutes propaganda, that much I know. Giving opinions from powerful people might give as an idea as to what is going to happen in the future (as a result of politicians' opinions), but then, when does a politician ever actually reveal his or her ulterior motives? I'd tell CNN to dig deeper. But then, that would take more effort than they are willing to put in. I mean come on, bloggers do it for free. But the professionals? They hardly do it at all!
Howard was a true neo-con believer - of everything including their views on global warming, until Australia's farming land turned into toast, when he swiftly reversed direction - and his departure leaves Bush even more isolated internationally than he was before.
Which is always a good thing!
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