Thankyou Sir and I have to say that the loyalty of the American public was never in question to me. The problem would be though is if Obama ever chose to exercise his veto over any military action in our favour, in which case 2/3 of Congress would need to decide to support us. Are that many Democrats going to turn their back on their leader for Australia?

I can't say for sure anymore myself? I used to think yes, they would turn their backs on him in a second if he ever suggested or did do something so monumentally stupid such as going against a country that has bled with us in every single one of our wars since world war 2. But then the health-care bill came along and completely altered my views! Sorry, wish i could be more reassuring.

S'okay, I don't think it is going to happen anyway.

BTW, it is every single war since WW1, we both sent troops to the Russian Civil war as well.

At the risk of nitpicking,

Well on the health care front Obamas changes actually brings the US closer to what is considered the norm in Australia and most of Europe.  Rather than a wedge it probably increases the common ground between the US and their allies.

 

I think Panther was talking about the Dems rolling over for Obama on healthcare, not on whether or not we happen to agree with it. I don't think what the US did with its healthcare system would have any impact on Australia/US relations,

I was busy watching Q and A during the previous post hence the typo, read this one.

Sorry I missed this mate, I'll leave a reply for when you get back from your business. My point wasn't that we are prepared to 'go it alone' militarily, but that we keep potential US reactions in mind when we make decisions that might get us into a shootin' war. Thus Pig Iron Bob didn't charge into Irian Jaya in the late 50s/early 60s when the Yanks expressed displeasure & similarly Howard didn't commit to intervention in ET until we hot only had UN backing, but also direct US involvement (if only in logistics).

 

Put simply, we aren't going to go charging off into a situation that we might need Uncle Sam to help us with unless we are pretty sure we have that support. Likewise we make sure the alliance is in sufficiently good shape that if we did get attacked in some way we would be able to get support. Thus we send troops virtually every time the US kicks off somewhere - it hasn't made much of a difference militarily since Vietnam - and not a huge one even then - but the appearance of international support is always welcome (you didn't really think it was about democracy & freedom all that good stuff did you ;) ).