Maintaining the International Structure

Australia does not share only a community of values with the United States. It understands that its safety rests ultimately on a stable international structure that, in turn, rests not on parchment treaties but on the power and credibility of the United States. Which is why Australia is with us today in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Maintenance of the current international structure includes both protecting our stature as the world's sole superpower, but more importantly, keeping in place the economic structure that allows countries to develop and prosper. Militant Islam appears to be attempting through violence to coerce countries allied with us to abandon ties with the U.S. at the cost of blood and treasure. Why? They recognize that we are the glue that keeps the economic structure of international trade and finance in place. We are a threat to their primitive ways. And they seek to isolate the U.S., which would in turn weaken the system that has brought prosperity to much of the world. France, Germany, and Russia are socialist states that don't believe in our form of economic freedom. We cannot rely on them to be friendly. But like Charles Krauthammer says, we can't lose the friends who share common economic goals and values.

UPDATE: This shouldn't be surprising.

Remember, Kerry may need to work with this so-called "puppet" in the future. Regardless, this is astonishingly irresponsible campaign rhetoric from a key member of the challenger's campaign team. To malign the serving PM of Iraq as appearing a "puppet" plays right into the handbook of insurgents operating in Iraq. I'm truly shocked Kerry would ostensibly authorize such an inflammatory statement (ie., not in the Casablanca 'shocked, shocked' kinda way).

"Playing right into the hands of the insurgents." Why should that be surprising to anyone who has read about Kerry's past? He did it in the context of the Viet Cong through his activities with the VVAW. He did it with the Soviets during the Cold War by voting against the deployment of nukes in Europe and nearly every weapons system that promoted the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. I'm not surprised at all. It's par for the course.