Alan Ramsey writing in the Sydney Morning Herald on April 10.

    The "troops home" debate is as phoney as the supposed reasons we got into Iraq in the first place. How can anyone take seriously Howard's frothing about "getting the job done" when, in a "coalition" military force of 135,000, of which 115,000 are US fighting troops, we're talking about a mere 850 Australian non-combatants, of whom only 460 are in Iraq? The proposition is absurd. Australia is in Iraq for political reasons only. Our minute military force is part of the political ballast the Bush White House needs to try to legitimise the invasion as well as the mounting toll in US blood and treasure to remake Iraq in its own strategic image. We are just part of the deception.
    Which means the Howard Government's suggestion of any "force reduction" being a matter for "decision" at "the appropriate time" is just more wool. We are there for as long as the Americans want us there, just as it has coerced so many other "allies" in its ratbag "coalition of the willing".
    It is all a terrible farce, but such a deadly one.

The full article is available here.