Expertly well said 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻An alert High School student could see the grovelling of the Australian government to every whim and order of the US , which the Prime Minister somehow manages to label as “respectful dealing” . “How high would you like Australia to jump to your orders , and do you recognise in the smallest way the sovereignty of this nation which you have peppered with Pine Gap and American bases of one kind or another ?? “ The government asks only for information, as Oscar Wilde once queried . Does the PM have any understanding of how much he humiliates the nation he is meant to SERVE ??
- Aukus - Aus should leave Aukus asap as I don't expect to see a nuclear powered submarine in my remaining lifetime of say 20 yrs.
The politicians (and think tanks from where they get their advise) are definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place. America or Asia Pacific. My view is that we are in Asia or Asia Pacific and we have have to live with our close neighbours and powers in the region. Hence, given the trajectory America is following, we should be spending our money on enlarging and strengthening diplomatic, social, cultural and aid ties with our neighbours and with China specifically (maybe we are doing that already?), rather than wasting money on the military. We are economically dependent on China already and should be expanding that and spreading our wings to the region more (maybe we are doing that already?).
I know that the following examples are rudimentary, but they help me to obtain some perspective before I let my sons enlist in some future needless war.
Numbers game 1
China, or for that matter India) could move one of their mega cities to Australia and change us socially and culturally (5 cities of the order of Australia's population and 18 cities over 10million people.
I am never clear, in the politician's pronouncements, about the type of military force that Australia wants? A defence force against attack from foreign invasion on our soil? A policing force to monitor our borders? A deterrent force to prevent or forestall an attack? A small specialised fighting force to join with our allies led by America in the small foreign wars of the past and the future? All of the above?
Australia should have some defence capability but I don't know what its purpose should be. A straight up comparison indicates that we would not survive any sort of attrition based war on the strength of our materiel.
I was exposed to the South African armaments industry in the 1980s and there was a running joke that was close to being true at the time. An American aircraft carrier had called in to Cape Town for supplies. The rumour was that the carrier had more fighter planes on board than fighters in the SA air force. True or not, the small SA air force had a purpose in the African wars, not a purpose in American might, global defence and global peace keeping.
One big foreign opposition (other than China) to AUKUS is our immediate neighbour, Indonesia. And Indonesia is wary of Chinese encroachment on its own maritime territory. Note: the Indonesian navy have no qualms firing on anyone entering their waters without permission. They did it to China and others.
So why are our pollies playing into the US Foreign Policy of Divide and Conquer in our region when there’s ASEAN countries next to us. Surely working with ASEAN is better than working with an unreliable profiteering ally who only wants us weak and dependent.
This logic as ABC’s Utopia so brilliantly scripted (and I quote) : “…we’re spending close to 30 billion dollars a year to protect our trade with China…from China.”
Because they are in the midst of tariff negotiations with the US at present, Australians leaders cannot make the sudden switch in international security strategy you advocate. Let Albo say, "Australia will determine its own course" as a mollifier for a bit longer -- perhaps even until the next US presidential election. At that point Australia can abandon its vassal status.
You sum it all up incredibly well.
Yet how on earth can we convince the politicians or the general public.
Trump has made America an unreliable ally.
We should assume America will fail to build enough submarines.
Instead, let's join the British in accelerating the production of the new Astute class subs, built in Adelaide.
Put our own needs first.
And continue to trade with China, to our mutual advantage.
Expertly well said 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻An alert High School student could see the grovelling of the Australian government to every whim and order of the US , which the Prime Minister somehow manages to label as “respectful dealing” . “How high would you like Australia to jump to your orders , and do you recognise in the smallest way the sovereignty of this nation which you have peppered with Pine Gap and American bases of one kind or another ?? “ The government asks only for information, as Oscar Wilde once queried . Does the PM have any understanding of how much he humiliates the nation he is meant to SERVE ??
Well argued and written. Lots in there to consider:
- Australia's foreign policy - muddled, incoherent, hypocritical, lacking vision etc.
- Desperate dependency on America
- Aukus - Aus should leave Aukus asap as I don't expect to see a nuclear powered submarine in my remaining lifetime of say 20 yrs.
The politicians (and think tanks from where they get their advise) are definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place. America or Asia Pacific. My view is that we are in Asia or Asia Pacific and we have have to live with our close neighbours and powers in the region. Hence, given the trajectory America is following, we should be spending our money on enlarging and strengthening diplomatic, social, cultural and aid ties with our neighbours and with China specifically (maybe we are doing that already?), rather than wasting money on the military. We are economically dependent on China already and should be expanding that and spreading our wings to the region more (maybe we are doing that already?).
I know that the following examples are rudimentary, but they help me to obtain some perspective before I let my sons enlist in some future needless war.
Numbers game 1
China, or for that matter India) could move one of their mega cities to Australia and change us socially and culturally (5 cities of the order of Australia's population and 18 cities over 10million people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_population
Numbers game 2
I am never clear, in the politician's pronouncements, about the type of military force that Australia wants? A defence force against attack from foreign invasion on our soil? A policing force to monitor our borders? A deterrent force to prevent or forestall an attack? A small specialised fighting force to join with our allies led by America in the small foreign wars of the past and the future? All of the above?
Australia should have some defence capability but I don't know what its purpose should be. A straight up comparison indicates that we would not survive any sort of attrition based war on the strength of our materiel.
https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison-detail.php?country1=china&country2=australia (Scroll about a third down to the military sections)
I was exposed to the South African armaments industry in the 1980s and there was a running joke that was close to being true at the time. An American aircraft carrier had called in to Cape Town for supplies. The rumour was that the carrier had more fighter planes on board than fighters in the SA air force. True or not, the small SA air force had a purpose in the African wars, not a purpose in American might, global defence and global peace keeping.
One big foreign opposition (other than China) to AUKUS is our immediate neighbour, Indonesia. And Indonesia is wary of Chinese encroachment on its own maritime territory. Note: the Indonesian navy have no qualms firing on anyone entering their waters without permission. They did it to China and others.
So why are our pollies playing into the US Foreign Policy of Divide and Conquer in our region when there’s ASEAN countries next to us. Surely working with ASEAN is better than working with an unreliable profiteering ally who only wants us weak and dependent.
This logic as ABC’s Utopia so brilliantly scripted (and I quote) : “…we’re spending close to 30 billion dollars a year to protect our trade with China…from China.”
https://youtu.be/sgspkxfkS4k
Because they are in the midst of tariff negotiations with the US at present, Australians leaders cannot make the sudden switch in international security strategy you advocate. Let Albo say, "Australia will determine its own course" as a mollifier for a bit longer -- perhaps even until the next US presidential election. At that point Australia can abandon its vassal status.