Beazley. Yes.

Putting Beazley back in Defence is a good move. Not that I share the popular opinion that he was a star there last time. I still recall the subs. Nevertheless, it is a general view, and the Yanks like him, and the move, and Latham's speech yesterday, will reassure people that Labor do know we are at war with the Islamists, and that at least some in Labor do know which side we are on.

That should of course, be a no-brainer. It is a measure of how lost much of the left is that the question needs to be addressed.

It should be a puzzle why so much of the left opposed the war in Iraq. Let's face it, the Baathists were pretty much a reprise of standard 1930's fascism, and one of the things the western left got unequivocally right last century was it's early opposition to the 1930's fascists.

Sadly I reckon the reason so many on the left didn't support the war in Iraq, or the war in Afghanistan, was that they cling to anti-Americanism like a shipwrecked man to a bit of flotsam. It's all they have left.

They spent years barracking for the Soviets and Chinese and their puppets against the Americans, always, of course, without having to worry about the Soviets or Chinese winning any place close to themselves. Then, with nobody except the North Koreans believing in the socialist state, the western left had nothing positive to cheer, so they held on tight to their last belief,remnant anti-Americanism.

Nobody in their right mind would think the US is perfect, or doesn't act in it’s own interests, or hasn't made some terrible mistakes, but anyone suffering from anti-Americanism should ask themselves a simple question. Would we be better off, if the Nazis, or the Japanese Empire, or the Soviets, or the Chinese Communists had prevailed.

Of course, we in Australia can say to ourselves, well maybe we are far enough away, they may not have not bothered with us, or such a rule would have been doomed to implode by now, as some lefties and righties now assure was inevitable in Iraq. (To which I say, mmm).

To the extent that we do live under an American Empire, it is a relatively benign rule. Of course, people are free to rail against it, or to pretend, like many of the Europeans, that the Americans are no more important that anyone else. So the UN, and "multilaterism", and "international law" are great fora for them, for there they can pretend that they punch with the same weight as those uncouth colonials.

As we Aussies would say, it's all bullshit.

Anyway, from our point of view, if the Americans are the biggest, smartest, toughest, richest kid in the schoolyard, we should be pleased that we have been allies of the big kid in all the big fights, we share many values and views, and he and we are pretty good mates.