Downer wants clarity from Latham on US ties

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has accused Opposition leader Mark Latham of having a confused position on Australia’s military relationship with the United States…

…”I think a good politician is somebody who stands very clearly for things and in his case I have no idea what he stands for.”

Mr Latham says he supports the joint defence facility at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory, which he visited yesterday.

But Mr Latham says he opposes the Howard Government’s decision to join the US in developing its missile defence system, known as ‘Son of Star Wars’.

…”I find it very hard to understand what’s he’s about,” Mr Downer said.

Downer has a point. Latham’s attitude towards American foreign policy is critical and often ambiguous (his minders advised him to distance himself from his statement that Bush was the most “incompetent and dangerous President in living memory” after he became party leader, which is disappointing because he was spot-on), whereas Howard’s government can always be relied on to kneel down and take an obsequious shot in the mouth for the betterment of US industry, no matter how insane or intransigent the demands.