Good On Ya' Mate!

President Bush is going to award the Medal of Freedom to good friend and REALIST, the former Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard. This from Bloomberg:

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President George W. Bush will award former Australian Prime Minister John Howard with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in fighting terrorism and promoting democracy, the White House said.

Bush will present the award, the U.S. government’s highest civilian honor, to Howard, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a press briefing yesterday, according to a transcript.

“All three leaders have been staunch allies of the United States, particularly in combating terrorism,” Perino said.

Howard was defeated by the Labor party’s Kevin Rudd in November elections. Howard was the second-longest serving prime minister in Australian history.

Howard, who Bush called a “personal friend” and a “man of steel,” joined Blair in committing troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Now I notice Tony Blair is in there too, and that is appropriate. I have long held that the future of the civilized world may well depend upon an alliance of the English speaking peoples: US, Australia, Great Britain, India and New Zealand. But I have a special place in my heart for the Aussies - they are great friends of the US and noble competitors...only drinking contest I ever lost in my ill spent youth!

We need to remember this about John Howard, he was the only Western leader to speak out directly about the dangers of Islamic immigrants to a society. This from the AP in 2006:

Prime Minister John Howard says he has no need to apologise for telling Muslims they need to embrace Australian values.

Mr Howard sparked controversy yesterday by saying on talk-back radio a small group of Muslim migrants had refused to accept their adopted country's values and had not learned English.

He told Macquarie Radio Australia had benefited greatly from immigration, but “there is a section, a small section, of the Islamic population ... which is very resistant to integration”.

"What I want to do is to reinforce the need for everybody who comes to this country to fully integrate," Mr Howard said yesterday. "Fully integrating means accepting Australian values, it means learning as rapidly as you can the English language if you don't already speak it.

"And it means understanding that in certain areas, such as the equality of men and women, the societies that some people have left were not as contemporary and as progressive as ours.

"People who come from societies where women are treated in an inferior fashion have got to learn very quickly that that is not the case in Australia."...

The prime minister’s comments sparked fury among some Muslim leaders who say they were offended by what the prime minister had said.

The chairman of the government's new Islamic advisory committee, Dr Ameer Ali, has warned of more trouble unless Mr Howard tones down his rhetoric on Muslim migrants.

"We have already witnessed one incident in Sydney recently in
Cronulla, I don't want these scenes to be repeated because when you antagonise the younger generation, younger group, they are bound to react," Dr Ali told Macquarie Radio.

Don't tell Muslims they must integrate, or they will attack you.

But Mr Howard today stood by his comments.

"I don't apologise," he told reporters."I think they are missing the point and the point is that I don't care and the Australian people don't care where people come from.

"There's a small section of the Islamic population which is unwilling to integrate and I have said generally all migrants ... they have to integrate."...

"And I have said, generally, all migrants ... they have to integrate, and that means speaking English as quickly as possible, it means embracing Australian values and it also means making sure that no matter what the culture of the country from which they come might have been, Australia requires women to be treated fairly and equally and in the same fashion as men.

"And if any migrants that come into this country have a different view, they better get rid of that view very quickly. I don't retreat in any way from that. It doesn't involve singling out a group."

Good on ya'mate, and if you ever want to quaff a round or two, give me a call!