Cheney Lite

Credit Australian PM John 'Cheney Lite' Howard for one thing: Momentarily altering Australia's off-stage position of utter international irrelevance. Howard, who channels Cheney's Grim Reaper persona better than any standup comic, says Barack Obama's call to end the war in Iraq would be welcomed by al-Queda. Obama replied:

I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1400, so if he is ... to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq.

In other words ... put up or shut up, old man.

That Howard is a Bush stooge is no news here. I received a comment from an Aussie asking why there's no stopping Howard and Blair, especially in light of the intelligence fixing of the Bushies. But my question to her is: Where's the Aussie outrage to Howard's ignorance? Howard proves he doesn't realize last November's elections changed the course of American foreign policy -- that is how a representative democracy works -- with moronic statements "If America pulls out of Iraq in March 2008 it can only be in circumstances of defeat" and "If I were running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats." It's up to the citizens of Australia to prove they've also woken up, and rid the man of the little international stature his title provides.

In this sports-obsessed country, it seems the citizenry watch the daily parrying of their political leaders like they would brutes kicking a ball around. Except those games, like those politicians, aren't given a moment's notice by the rest of the world.