SYDNEY -- Is Australia's decision to send troops to guard Japanese reconstruction workers in Iraq reasonable? Not if you believe Australians who are still fighting World War II or are angry at our armed presence in Iraq.
A reasonable observer, on hearing the outcry against Prime Minister John Howard's about-face -- which will double Canberra's troop commitment in southern Iraq -- might be shocked. The hooha on talk-back radio is shrill indeed.
Lest we forget the past, one Rupert Murdoch-owned Sydney daily newspaper has contrasted the new togetherness with an old picture of gaunt, starved Australian prisoners of war in a Japanese Imperial Army hellhole during World War II.