Cheney Downunder

You can’t get away from the bastards, anywhere! Cheney is coming to town and his main task is to thank Prime Minister John Howard for Canberra's unwavering support through the Iraq War. Cheney downunder

The visit has fired up the old question hereabouts: What future direction do you think the US-Australian alliance should take? I didn’t bother looking at the 131 responses to that question, the Cheney visit is disturbing enough without wading through the views of the ignorant.

Commentators and the populous here are largely locked into a Bush led Republican past. There is little recognition of the changed dynamics already set in place by the Democrat resurgence.

But I was further outraged by the lingering legacy of the Bush/Cheney influence on our Prime Minister. Early in his term, nearly a decade ago, Howard got into hot water for being dumb enough to cast Australia as ‘the deputy sheriff’ of this region.

The implication clearly being that the Bush/Cheney gang has anointed the Howard government their local agents.

The result of that ‘understanding’ is still playing out. Some will recall my coverage of the mess we helped create in the Solomon Islands in 2003. Now a report from the Australian shows how far the deputy is willing to bumble!

AN Australian Vietnam veteran has been charged with a plot to assassinate controversial Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare for a $50,000 bounty allegedly "sponsored by Australia".

The arrest comes amid a simmering brawl between the Solomons Government and Canberra over Mr Sogavare's plans to form an armed police "close personal protection unit". All Solomons police were disarmed in 2003, following the arrival of the Australian-led intervention force to restore peace after years of ethnic-motivated violence.

Okay, so it is just a news report, there is no clear evidence of a plot hatched in Canberra, until you get to the para:

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman last night said he could not comment on the allegations of Australian involvement in sponsoring the alleged assassination plot

Personally I’m willing to overlook Howard’s increasingly outrageous travel expenses and send him off to Washington so Dick can say thanks. We don’t really want the creep here.

But I would also like to see the Congressional foreign relations committees revisit this supposed ‘deputy sheriff’ nonsense and knock it on the head.

If the US can’t trust Bush/Cheney to orchestrate their affairs across the globe they certainly can’t trust Howard and his half arsed conspirators.