NEW YORK — On Nov. 25, Australian voters replaced Prime Minister John Howard of the Liberal Party with Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party, who promised to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq. The new prime minister is preparing Australia for post-Bush America.
Howard joined Jose Maria Aznar of Spain and Tony Blair of England in becoming an ex-prime minister because of his blind allegiance to U.S. President George W. Bush. Loyalty to Bush has become fatal to the political lives of politicians who ignore voters' increasing distrust of Bush. Shinzo Abe of Japan is also such a political casualty.
In mid-September, then Prime Minister Abe of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suddenly resigned because he failed to persuade the opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), to extend the Anti-Terrorist Special Act (ATA) beyond its Nov. 1 expiration. ATA was a clone of Bush's infamous Patriot Act and Iraq Resolution, which Bush manipulated to invade Iraq unilaterally and abuse his executive power at home. He has been systematically destroying the bedrock of American democracy, including the separation of church and state, constitutional limits of presidential power, an independent judiciary, voting integrity, citizens' protection against illegal spying, and unlawful imprisonment and torture.