Anthony Albanese on Iran is no John Howard on Iraq
The comparison with the Iraq war in 2003 is stark. While the result was disastrous, no voter could be in any doubt that John Howard believed in what he was doing.
The government’s problems in explaining its commitment to President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war on Iran derives essentially from confusion about Australian roles and responsibilities in a Trump charged turbulent world.
It suggests the tight scripts and careful semantics employed by the Albanese government, which have successfully stabilised relations with China and allowed Australia to avoid attracting Trump’s ire, have genuine limitations in a crisis of the sort now unfolding in the Middle East.
