steely man

Even with Japan backing our bid to go the East Asian summit, it seems pretty unlikely that our Government would sign any non-aggression treaty. I mean, who can forget comments John Howard made about our right to make pre-emptive attacks on Southeast-Asian countries back in 2002, which led to a situation where:

"South-East Asian leaders, including in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia immediately denounced the statements as a direct threat to their country’s sovereignty and warned they would respond to any Australian military intrusion on their territory."

I mean come on, we're still Uncle Sam's Deputy Sherriff, aren't we?
(Apropos...wonder what nickname Bush is going to give a Prime Minister Costello/Abbott/Nelson? Hope it's another good one.)