26 Nov. editorial in The Australian: Forward Defence.

... But they both also indicated the way Australian defence and foreign policy has changed over the past few years, as we break away from the old paradigms of Cold War conflict. When Mr Howard meets leaders of Commonwealth countries at the CHOGM talks in Malta this weekend, he will be seen not as a satrap of the Americans, as the Left like to present him, but as the head of a major regional power, capable and committed to supporting the cause of democracy in its own right. While the US alliance remains the foundation of our national defence, we are projecting power into areas of Asia independent of the Americans. This is particularly puzzling for advocates of the old-fashioned orthodoxy that interprets everything through the prism of their hatred of the US alliance. But what they miss is that the alliance against terror is much broader than the Anglosphere, and that when Australia assists Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, we are acting in specifically Australian interests. And when Canberra strengthens ties with Indonesia and The Philippines, it is working to make this country safer from terror attack.