PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 1 THE PARTNERSHIP GREG SHERIDAN Greg Sheridan has been Foreign Editor at The Australian since 1992 and has written about Australian foreign policy since entering journalism in the late 1970s. He has written four books concerning Australia and Asia, and the interaction with the US in Asia. In researching this book, Sheridan interviewed a wide range of key insiders at the most senior levels of government in Australia, the US and various Asian countries. He spent two two-month periods as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. Sheridan is a contributing editor to the US foreign policy journal, The National Interest, a visiting Fellow at the Land Warfare Studies Centre in Canberra and a founding member of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue. PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 3 THE PARTNERSHIP THE INSIDE STORY OF THE US-AUSTRALIAN ALLIANCE UNDER BUSH AND HOWARD GREG SHERIDAN NEW SOUTH PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 4 I wish to dedicate this book to my wife, Jasbir Kaur Sheridan, the light of my life, and to our son, Ajay, and his wife, Inu, and to our sons Lakhvinder and Jagdave. They are the tightest alliance of all. A New South book Published by University of New South Wales Press Ltd University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA www.unswpress.com.au © Greg Sheridan 2006 First published 2006 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Sheridan, Greg, 1956– . The partnership: the inside story of the US-Australian alliance under Bush and Howard. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0 86840 922 7. 1. Howard, John, 1939– - Military leadership. 2. Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946– - Military leadership. 3. War on Terrorism, 2001– . 4. Australia - Foreign relations - United States. 5. United States - Foreign relations - Australia. I. Title. 327.94073 Text design Ruth Pidd Cover design Di Quick Front cover photograph Newspix/Brett Faulkner Back cover photograph Author with Condoleeza Rice, March 2006 Print Griffin PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 5 CONTENTS Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: why do we have an alliance with the United States of America? 11 CHAPTER 1 Council of war: the White House, April 2003 18 CHAPTER 2 The bonds of terror 32 CHAPTER 3 Afghanistan: the first Aussie Bronze Star since Vietnam 40 CHAPTER 4 Diggers to Iraq: Howard joins the Bush family, Australia plays its red card 57 CHAPTER 5 Inside the belly of the beast: the Bush foreign policy from the inside 74 CHAPTER 6 In the neocons’ lair: a season in Washington, an encounter with Wolfowitz 86 CHAPTER 7 Sexing up the intelligence relationship: Washington opens the golden door, Canberra walks through 97 CHAPTER 8 Iraq: a general’s story 111 PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 6 (6) The Partnership CHAPTER 9 The Australian Defence Force: redesigned for global power 128 CHAPTER 10 Howard’s love affair with the soldiers 141 CHAPTER 11 Defence cooperation with the United States 152 CHAPTER 12 Australia’s standing in America 161 CHAPTER 13 Indonesia: helping with leviathan, or deputy sheriff? 172 CHAPTER 14 The Asian giants: China, agreeing to disagree; Japan, Australia’s strategic partner 188 CHAPTER 15 Commander of the Gulf: a sailor’s story 206 CHAPTER 16 The United Nations: mangling multilateralism together 214 CHAPTER 17 Howard and Bush as national security heads of government 228 CHAPTER 18 Two case studies in the new partnership: the tsunami and climate change 237 CHAPTER 19 The Americanisation of Australian politics 249 CHAPTER 20 The Free Trade Agreement: making dollars and sense 261 CHAPTER 21 Lord of the skies: a fighter pilot’s story 271 CHAPTER 22 Labor and America: out-thought, out-muscled, out-voted 279 PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 7 Greg Sheridan (7) CHAPTER 23 Why does everyone hate America, but love it too? 290 CHAPTER 24 Secrets of the alliance: Roosevelt, Spender and Scanlan 302 CHAPTER 25 The new alliance 319 Index 324 PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to record my thanks to the editor-in-chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, for the outstanding leadership he has given in ensuring The Australian’s commitment to understanding and reporting Australia’s place in the world at all levels, and to the editor, Michael Stutchbury, for enduring leadership. I would also like to thank my colleagues who are especially concerned with national security issues, especially Paul Kelly, Dennis Shanahan, Patrick Walters, and Cameron Stewart, and our former colleague, John Kerin. The work environment at The Australian is collaborative, collegial and full of the clash of ideas, facts and opinions. Similarly I am indebted to the section editors for whom I most work – Tom Switzer, the opinion editor, with his encyclopedic knowledge of American foreign policy, Patrick Lawnham on Inquirer and Louise Evans on features. All three manage writers with that mixture of direction and patience which is so helpful. I am particularly grateful to Kurt Campbell of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, who invited me to become a visiting fellow in his International Security program, which in turn allowed me to conduct many of the US- based interviews for this book. Kurt and Dr John Hamre, the head of CSIS, ensure a supremely stimulating and productive work envi- ronment at CSIS. PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 10 (10) The Partnership I am also grateful to the Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Air Marshall Angus Houston, who approved my requests to inter- view numerous serving soldiers. Similarly I am grateful to General Peter Leahy, Chief of Army, for making it possible for me to talk at length to a number of SAS men. As well I would like to record thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm McGregor who invited me to take up a visiting fellowship at the Land Warfare Studies Centre in Canberra. I must also thank John Dauth for wise counsel and long friend- ship. Appreciation is also due to John Elliot of UNSW Press who took on an unusual project and managed it with forbearance, skill and commitment. Hundreds of people spoke to me for this book. Some are named, most are not, because that is the nature of their position. To everyone who did agree to talk to me, I am most grateful. Naturally, no one mentioned above is in any way responsible for the book’s opinions, judgments or mistakes. Finally I must thank my family. An author’s family puts up with a great deal in the gestation of a book, and my debt to my family, especially my wife, Jasbir, is immeasurable. PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 11 INTRODUCTION: WHY DO WE HAVE AN ALLIANCE WITH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? It was just before the war against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was to kick off. A huge US force, a substantial British force, a small but lethal Australian group and a tiny Polish contingent were to join together to invade Iraq, topple Saddam Hussein and disarm him of the weapons of mass destruction he was believed to possess. Just before the invasion was to begin, the United States called a high-level military planning meeting. It was convened in Qatar. Even though attendance was restricted to the most senior officers – one participant joked that you had to be a full colonel to carry anyone’s briefcase – there were too many invitees for a conven- tional meeting room. So the US hosts held the meeting on an indoor basketball court. They had another reason for that choice, which would become apparent as the meeting got under way. Then Brigadier (later General) Maurie McNarn, the Australian commander, was the senior Australian present among the couple of hundred officers called together. As the meeting was called to order, everyone was there in their appointed place except for US General Tommy Franks, the trash- talking Texan who had been at high school with Laura Bush and was overall commander of the coalition force. Suddenly the lights went out. On the big, bare wall of the court a flickering image appeared, then took definite shape. Several minutes of the movie Gladiator were shown. At the end of a segment of fierce fighting, PartnershipTEXT2 26/6/06 3:31 PM Page 12 (12) The Partnership Russell Crowe was left standing on a pile of bodies, knee-deep in blood and gore. The film was stopped at that point. The United States contingent, the vast majority of those present, began a raucous chant: ‘Hoo Ha! Hoo Ha! Hoo Ha!’, a common enough US military war cry. The noise was deafening. McNarn leant across to a senior Brit standing near him. ‘You know the moral of that film?’ McNarn asked. ‘No’, said the Brit. ‘What’s that?’ Because of the noise of the American chant, McNarn had to shout his reply. Just as he began answering the Brit, the chant stopped and Tommy Franks walked in. Across the silence, McNarn’s voice, accent unmistakably Down Under, rang out: ‘If you want a bloody job well done, make sure you put an Australian in charge!’ Franks looked daggers at McNarn, who had inadvertently executed Operation Stolen Thunder. The course of a true alliance never does run wholly smooth. The vast majority of Australian-US cooperation in Iraq was highly productive and deep connections were made or reinforced between the two militaries. But the incident above, trivial in every way, reminds us that the Australian and American styles are quite different, and the Australians are more than willing and able to speak up for themselves. The idea, common enough, that in the Australian-US alliance the Americans say what they want and the Australians follow suit is absurdly mistaken. It is the thesis of this book that in the Australian-US alliance, as in many vastly unequal relationships, the power may lie with the bigger party, but the initiative most often lies with the smaller party. This book examines the Australian-US alliance during the period when John Howard has been prime minister of Australia and George W Bush has been president of the US, technically since Bush’s inauguration in January 2001, but effectively since Bush’s election in November 2000. It is not a book about Iraq, though of course Iraq figures heavily in it. It is not a comprehensive treatment of Australian foreign policy, some aspects of which are less influ- enced by the alliance than others. As such there is a lot that is not