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[integritycounts]

US 'endangers Australians'
Roy Eccleston, Washington correspondent
September 18, 2004
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10797507%5E2703,00.html

JOHN Kerry's campaign has warned Australians that the Howard Government's support for the US in Iraq has made them a bigger target for international terrorists.

Diana Kerry, younger sister of the Democrat presidential candidate, told The Weekend Australian that the Bali bombing and the recent attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta clearly showed the danger to Australians had increased.

"Australia has kept faith with the US and we are endangering the Australians now by this wanton disregard for international law and multilateral channels," she said, referring to the invasion of Iraq.

Asked if she believed the terrorist threat to Australians was now greater because of the support for Republican George W. Bush, Ms Kerry said: "The most recent attack was on the Australian embassy in Jakarta -- I would have to say that."

Ms Kerry, who taught school in Indonesia for 15 years until 2000, is heading a campaign called Americans Overseas for Kerry which aims to secure the votes of Americans abroad -- including the more than 100,000 living in Australia.

In the 2000 election, analysts say absentee votes cast overseas tipped the balance to Mr Bush in the decisive state of Florida. Domestic votes put Mr Gore ahead by a few hundred votes, but Mr Bush won by 537 after overseas ballots were included.

In this election, which is decided according to the states won, the Kerry campaign says overseas votes could also determine the result given there are a dozen states where victory might be measured by a few hundred to a few thousand votes. About 5million American voters live overseas and interest in this election was high, Ms Kerry said. About 350,000 absentee ballots were distributed in 2000, but more than a million had been sought this time.

"My belief is US citizens living overseas are very concerned about the current direction of the US, particularly in regard to international affairs," she claimed. "They are on the front lines of the decline of US respect and reputation; they hear it and feel it on a daily basis."

A poll by the Washington-based Pew Centre for People and the Press found that in March this year only 58 per cent of Britons, 37 per cent of French and 38 per cent of Germans had favourable opinions of America, down by more than 20 percentage points in each country from before the Iraq war.

Quizzed on US opinion polls that showed Senator Kerry's campaign flagged through August and that he was now running behind Mr Bush, Ms Kerry said her brother would win the November 2 election.

"He responds well to challenges and has the reputation of fighting well from behind," she said.

[happyday]

You know, I've had the unpleasent task of trying to explain to my young children the reason diplomacy doesn't always work in the face of all the media saying it will. I've tried to take the example of Chamberlin/Churchill from WWII, and I explain it this way:

When a bully comes up and bops you in the nose, people generally react in one of two ways. One rolls around on the ground, begging the bully not to hit him again, he'll do anything the bully wants, and then when the bully gets what he wanted, he hits him again for the fun of it. The second person gives the bully his just desserts, and makes him sorry for starting it in the first place so he doesn't start it again any time soon.

A little simplified perhaps, but I wonder how many of these leaders have forgotten the wise words of Benjamin Franklin, which go something like this: Those who would trade anything (but not fight for) peace and security deserve neither peace nor security.
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God Bless America, and God Bless the Swiftees!

[rb325th]

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U.S. Army 1983-1995, 11C1P/11H2P NBTDT