Australia next to leave “coalition of the willing”?

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a long-time Bush backer on invading Iraq, is not denying he’s ready to pull his country’s troops out sometime next year.

Meanwhile, ham-handed BushCo diplomacy, over the Australian political opposition’s stronger commitment to that idea before next year’s elections there, rears its head again:

U.S. Ambassador to Australia Robert McCallum told Channel 10's Meet the Press program on Sunday that a plan by Opposition leader Kevin Rudd to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq, if he won power in elections to be held later this year, could create tensions between Australia and the United States.

“Ugly American” diplomacy moves forward.