by Piers Akerman
TO JUSTIFY his call for Australians troops to quit Iraq, Opposition Leader Kim "Bomber" Beazley wants you to believe the Japanese are scrambling to desert the nation in its hour of need. That is far from the truth.
In fact, it is a fair bet Beazley would have a real fight on his hands if he tried to run his defeatist rant about pulling out from Iraq here.
Many Japanese are most disturbed their Self Defence Forces cannot remain in Iraq. The decision to leave was largely forced upon them by the restrictions on mounting military enterprises under the constitution they had to accept from the victorious Allies at the end of WWII.
While the Japanese may have withdrawn their small defence team from al-Muthanna province, they are actually having a searching debate about how they can make a bigger contribution to the war on terror – a cause which Beazley used to pay lip-service to – while their post-war constitution has tied their hands in terms of providing an out-and-out military force.
The Bomber, on the other hand, cannot wait to pander to the Left and the Greens and those useful idiots, the doctors' wives, and cut and run.
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"John Howard has missed a golden opportunity for an exit strategy from Iraq," he said on Tuesday, as if the Japanese were also searching for the earliest excuse to high-tail it – which was definitely not the case.
But Beazley is seeking golden opportunities with the same zeal as Labor losers search for messiahs. When the future appears as bleak as Beazley's, not a lot of thought goes into decisions aimed at self-preservation even when they involve leaving mates in the lurch.
But this opportunistic leap comes at a bizarre time. It is not as if there have not been a few big wins recently in the war on terror.
The killing of al-Zarqawi, described as the No. 3 man in the global al-Qaeda network, was not a bad coup and even some of the meanest critics of the coalition of the willing are prepared to admit there was a slew of valuable intelligence material to be garnered from the debris of his hidey hole which led to the killing or capture of some very nasty people.
They show no delight in having to bring their force home and, even as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the al-Muthanna group was to go, officials made it known a Self Defence Force air unit now flying missions between Iraq and Kuwait is expected to play an expanded role to demonstrate Japan's commitment to the reconstruction effort.
While their constitution is being interpreted in many different ways and attempts are being made to stretch the definition of defence, many Japanese appear to understand what Beazley does not – that the war on terror is not something you can play at in one part of the globe and disavow in another.
That is why the Japanese are having the debate which Beazley wants to duck and, while they are having that particular debate, they are finding ways to help beyond sending billions in cash as they did to contribute toward the cost of the first Gulf War – and do not think they were not angry when Kuwait forgot to name Japan among the nations it owed thanks to when Saddam's forces were sent sent packing after 100 days.
It may smack of mere self-interest, but they have been helping maintain global security in recent times by sending a Coast Guard vessel to the critical Malacca Straits to boost the force keeping the world's busiest shipping lane free from pirates.
That decision, too, caused some constitutional heartburn but, while the Japanese depend upon the route for the bulk of their oil supplies, they are also acutely aware they are helping relieve the US of some of the responsibility for global security.
It may not be a lot, but it does mean the US does not have to have a ship stationed there in the straits, freeing its vessels for duty elsewhere.
Two weeks ago, four-star Admiral Mike Mullen, the US Chief of Naval Operations, No. 4 after President George W. Bush, the Secretary of Defence and the Secretary of the Navy, told me in Sydney that, while the US currently had just 281 vessels, with a plan to expand that to 313, he had a vision of a "1000-ship navy" made up of vessels from nations around the world which shared the same values as the US.
He was not talking big ships, either. The next ship the US is to launch is designated as a Freedom-class vessel or a littoral combat ship, smaller than our ANZAC frigates, with a draft shallow enough to operate as effectively as Australian ships have been doing in the Gulf, protecting oil loading facilities, around the Solomons and off East Timor.
But he made the point, the US cannot do everything alone.
No one should expect it to, either, despite Beazley's populist brain snap call for an immediate withdrawal of Australian forces from Iraq.
Putting his stance into perspective, Japan, officially a pacifist nation, is prepared to do more than Australia would under Kim Beazley to protect the world against today's threats to global security.
The Japanese leader is trying to convince his electorate Japan should go even further but Beazley wants Australia to do even less.
Perhaps he wants the navy to stay at anchor in Cockburn Sound and the army to keep to their barracks so he can keep an eye on things from the safety of his Brand electorate.
In the next big one, I know who I'd rather have on my side.
akermanp@daily telegraph.com.au Piers Akerman is taking part in an Australia-Japan Exchange as a guest of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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