As President Obama rolls out on his new strategy for Afghanistan, the Rudd government is likely to find itself, once again, contemplating the question of how best to pursue its own war effort.
By all accounts, Kevin Rudd survived his recent trip to Washington without facing any formal request to bolster Australia’s commitment to the war. However, as my colleague Andrew Shearer points out, Washington’s diplomatic courtesy on this front may well belie an unspoken expectation, conveyed by more subtle means, that Australia lift its game.
So what will Canberra do? Kevin Rudd has already committed a handful of additional police trainers and civil aid workers to the effort. But will there be anything more substantial in light of Obama’s dramatic new escalation, or will Canberra stick with its tried and tested method of ‘speaking loudly and waving a big flag’ – to twist Teddy Roosevelt’s old wisdom?
No prizes for guessing which option my money’s on.
