In Support of John Howard
Tomorrrow is the Anzac Day holiday, and there's a lot of buzz this year over Galliopoli. Over the last decade, Australians have been making a increased annual presence in the Dardanelles, where Turkey successfully defended itself against the Allied troops attempting a landing in what turned out to have been the wrong location. From April to December 1915, British, Australian, and New Zealand troops fought valiantly and in vain to launch from Anzac Cove their march on Constantinople, while the Turks, led by the man who would become Ataturk, fought with equal bravery and determination to repel them. The Turks, of course, were on the wrong side of history in that battle, allied with the Germans, but unlike thirty years on, we're not dealing with political war, but territorial, by and large, in what may have been the last such war.

In any event, because so many Australians and New Zealanders want to visit Anzac Cove each April, a request was put to Turkey to put in some infrastructure improvements, which was honored. Now there's a terrific beat-up going on over widening the road there, even without all the facts in place. Political opportunism may be understandable, but not the expense of good relations. As the article says, it's the Turk's land, and they're helping out at Australia's request, and there's no sign they've been in any way disrespectful of anyone in the process. Howard deserves a bit of credit for working this out.

As much as I disagree with Howard's social policies - his selfishness in dismantling Medicare and the pensions system - and his decision to support the invasion of Iraq, I don't think he deserves everything he's getting on the road at Anzac Cove. If nothing else, more people can now more easily review the futility of war.

Update (Forget all that; he's a jerk): Howard snubbed NZ, declining to attend their Galliopoli services, the first Australian Prime Minister to do so. Brilliant statesmanship.