Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has confirmed he will fulfil his election promise to withdraw all his nation's military personally from Iraq by the middle of the year.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the Australian chief of defence forces, said that his country had done 'its bit' in southern Iraq; it was time to pull out the 1,540 army, air force and navy personnel. Opinion polls have suggested that some 80 per cent of Australians support the withdrawal. Australia will, however, leave behind two maritime surveillance aircraft and a warship helping to patrol offshore oil facilities, as well as a small force of security and liaison troops.
The withdrawal announcement raised concerns of a potential crisis in the intimate US-Australian relationship. The two sides have fought together in every major military conflict since the first world war, and the US is Australia's third-largest trading partner, behind China and Japan.
But Canberra emphasised to Washington, during a meeting under the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations on February 23, that the Iraq withdrawal policy does not amount to a radical rethink of relations. While lacking the personal connection to the September 11, 2001, atrocities of his predecessor - John Howard was in Washington on the day and experienced the event first hand - Mr Rudd and his new government are determined to maintain close ties with the US.
Indeed, Australian political and military support of US policy priorities elsewhere will continue - in Afghanistan, and in continued close co-operation in other aspects of the 'war on terror'.
'We very strongly believe it's in our national interest to be there [in Afghanistan] to counter terrorism,' Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on TV recently.