Cheney visits an Australia roiled by Guantánamo, Iraq

Prime Minister Howard has been a steadfast US backer, but his opinion poll rating took a hit ahead of Cheney's arrival.

By Nick Squires | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the February 22, 2007 edition

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Dick Cheney, perhaps the most powerful vice president in United States history, arrives in Sydney Thursday for a four-day visit.

Australian Army Black Hawk helicopters have been clattering over the city as part of counterterrorism exercises, as local police described Mr. Cheney as a "high risk" dignitary.

He is the most senior American visitor to Australia since President Bush addressed the joint houses of Parliament in Canberra in 2003.

But despite Australia's status as a steadfast US ally and broad public support for the country's troop deployment in Afghanistan, Cheney will encounter public anger over Australia's participation in the Iraq war and growing disquiet over the fate of the country's lone Guantánamo Bay detainee, David Hicks.

Cheney will be greeted Thursday by a big rally outside Sydney's Town Hall, organized by the Stop the War Coalition.

A Newspoll survey this week found 68 percent of respondents now believe it was not worth sending Australian troops to Iraq, and only 30 percent agreed with the government's view that they should remain "as long as necessary." More than a quarter of people interviewed wanted the soldiers brought home immediately.

Cheney's visit comes at an awkward time for Prime Minister John Howard, who has been in power for more than a decade but this week slumped to his lowest opinion-poll rating in six years.

Cozying up to the US is dangerous at a time when the Australian public is recoiling from the situation in Iraq, even though it may support the broader objectives of the war on terror.

Mr. Howard has so far ruled out reducing Australia's 1,450-strong force in and around Iraq.

But he may find that stance more difficult after British Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement Thursday that he will start withdrawing British forces from the war-ravaged country.

The Australian public is also becoming increasingly concerned over the US administration's treatment of Guantánamo detainee Mr. Hicks.

A drifter and a former kangaroo hunter from the parched state of South Australia, Hicks was captured in Afghanistan with the Taliban in 2001 and handed over to US soldiers.

He has spent the past five years detained in Guantánamo Bay without any charges being filed against him.

It's not that Australians necessarily think he's innocent – clearly he was not in Afghanistan as a backpacker.

But they feel strongly that he deserves to face his accusers and be given a fair trial.

"For Howard, there are risks to this visit because the Bush administration is unpopular in Australia," says Michael Fullilove, director of the global-issues program at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank. "The Hicks case contributes to the sense that all is not right. Here we are, a reliable ally, and he's been in custody for five years without a trial, unlike the British prisoners, who were sent home."

Australia has been one of America's most steadfast allies for more than 60 years. Australian "diggers" fought alongside GIs in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War.

While Australia's involvement in Iraq may be deeply unpopular, that is not to say that the country has been swept by anti-Americanism.

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