Australia's Leader Squirms Under Too Much Praise From Bush

Oct 18, 2003
Australia's Leader Squirms Under Too Much Praise From Bush
By Geoff Spencer, Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - As a Texan, President Bush thought he was handing out high praise to one of his closest allies: Australia, he declared, is nothing less than a "sheriff" in the U.S.-led war on terror.

But by pinning a star to the chest of that country's conservative prime minister, John Howard, the American president inadvertently painted a target on his friend's back ahead of a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Thailand.

Both men want the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting - which also includes China, Russia and Japan - to focus on anti-terror proposals.

But some of Australia's neighbors in Asia have long charged that the country follows U.S. policy too closely at the expense of regional interests.

For days, Howard has tried to shake off the praise, insisting that while he is pro-American he also has an independent mind.

"I don't see this country as being a sheriff, a deputy sheriff, as having any kind of enforcement role in our region," Howard told reporters before he left for the Bangkok summit on Saturday.

Australians have fought alongside Americans from World War I to Vietnam to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. So it was no surprise that Howard was one of the first to deploy troops to fight along with Americans in Afghanistan and later one of the few to do so in Iraq.

He was visiting Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, when the hijacked planes slammed into the Pentagon and brought down the World Trade Center in New York.

Then last year, Howard's resolve to fight terror hardened when 88 Australians were among the 202 people killed in a Bali nightclub bomb attack by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida.

Even so, Bush apparently went too far for Howard's comfort with his latest accolade, made to Australian reporters at the White House last week.

Howard may have only himself to blame.

In 2000, he sparked anger in Asia when he reportedly said Australia's role was akin to that of a "deputy sheriff" to Washington.

Asked about that in last week's interview, Bush replied: "No. We don't see it as a deputy sheriff. We see it as a sheriff."

Bush called the two countries "equal partners, friends and allies. There's nothing deputy about this relationship."

Some of Howard's Asian critics scoffed that Australia had been promoted.

"I suppose America wants a puppet of its own in this region whom they can trust, who will do whatever they wish," Malaysian's Deputy Defense Minister Shafie Apdal said.

Earlier in the week, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had used a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders to denounce Australia as acting like a "deputy general" and a Western "transplant" in the region.

After APEC ends on Tuesday, Bush will make flying visits to Singapore and Indonesia before landing in Australia, where he will address the country's Parliament.

"I'm looking forward to it - I've never been there," the president said of the vast continent, on which he will only see the capital city of Canberra. "They tell me it's kind of like Texas."

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGANV83TXLD.html