U.S. to Build Up Military in Australia

Source: WSJ

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will announce an accord for a new and permanent U.S. military presence in Australia when he visits next week, a step aimed at countering China's influence and reasserting U.S. interest in the region, said people familiar with his plans.

The agreement will lead to an increase in U.S. naval operations off the coast of Australia and give American troops and ships "permanent and constant" access to Australian facilities, the people said. While no new American bases will be built under the plan, the arrangement will allow U.S. forces to place equipment in Australia and set up more joint exercises, they said.

The move could help the U.S. military, now concentrated in Japan and South Korea in Northeast Asia, to spread its influence west and south across the region, including the strategically and economically important South China Sea, which China considers as its sovereign territory.

It was unclear how much the new presence would cost the Pentagon, which is facing years and hundreds of billion dollars in spending cuts.

But the expanded military presence is designed as a demonstration of U.S. commitment to the region, part of an effort to refocus on Asia as the U.S. withdraws from Iraq and draws its forces down in Afghanistan, officials in both countries said.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203537304577028490161890480.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

Them 'roos gettin' uppity? Aussie gummint need help?

This is fracking stupid.

angrily,
Bright

they are a relatively weak country in a potentially unstable and volatile region of the world.

feel threatened. It's not our job to go around "protecting" everyone else in the world.

Obviously, it saves the Aussies money.

Can't do both. Troops and ships cost money, and they cost somebody something. Us, usually.

One of the dumber things I've seen yet is this decision to protect and aid the illiterate and undeveloped Aussies while they strive to join the First World countries.

Some meme like that?

this is the cheapest way to ensure that US forces have the proper logistic infrastructure in the region. We are going to pay for those troops and ships anyway.

After spending many months in New Zealand and drinking warm piss, the change was refreshing.

It's the only thing negative I can say about the Kiwis.

:rofl: :toast:

from India so they can get here even faster?

all that oil coming from the ME for starters.

Never heard of a system where buyers provide all the overhead up front.

really means "global corporations have interest" in the region. The biggest protection racket money can buy. Unfortunately it's our money, which some of us would rather it be spent helping those in this country and rebuilding our infrastructure.

no one can reasonably argue otherwise. The economy you are counting on to help others and rebuild our infrastructure.

We pay more on the MIC than any country in the world and now, not only our infrastructure is suffering, but so are many of our people.

there is plenty of money out there - taxing corporations and the wealthy would be a good start.

or whatever you want to call our penchant for policing the world with our big sticks.

From Darwin, which is our northernmost capital city, Papua New Guinea's sitting around 100 miles to the north. Then further away than that to the north-west is East Timor and Indonesia. I'm not seeing the threat of invasion from anywhere but New Zealand, which has launched an invasion of New Zealand apples to flood our markets...

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They choose to spend only 3% of their GDP on military.

Australians choose to invest the money elsewhere, and do not feel threatened based on their investment. This is a win for Australians as they can now have the U.S. provide defense, and continue to invest in other areas.

Countries serious about military spending are near 4% or higher of GDP. There are outliers, for example, like the United States where military spending of GDP can be misleading. But Australia isn't an outlier from my view.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html?countryName=Australia&countryCode=as®ionCode=aus&rank=45#as

There's nothing in it for us, so why should we give a shit about 'US interests'?

Christ, Foster's beer isn't THAT bad. :mad:

When the rest of the world gets tired of US fucking us the peace, payback gonna be a bitch.

I think the move is more symbolic and defensive.

Several Asian nations, fearful of the threat China poses, also are beefing up their arsenals, fearing that the U.S. security umbrella is being eroded by China's enhanced capabilities and possible U.S. defense cuts.

Sorry, but I just don't buy the whole "deterrent" thing.

The Soviets had a short window after WWII when they expanded their sphere of influence via military presence only because there were political vacuums and exhausted, devastated, vulnerable populations in Eastern Europe, and their contiguous locations made strategic sense.

After that, the Soviets never really had a viable chance again at any kind of real military threat to western Europe or the Americas, and they only made the inroads they did in Asia for similar reasons to the post-WWII European expansion. Other than that, it was all just military posturing, and trying to create the illusion of a viable economy by employing everyone either in the military forces or in military supply chain industries. As a defensive force, both the Soviets (then) and China (now) are formidable mainly because of the inexhaustible supply of troops they could deploy in a defensive war on or near their own territory.

Neither was/is a viable threat as an offensive force. Their "economies" are hollow shells (not unlike what ours is becoming) based only on military supply and financial manipulation. The "deterrent" game is merely a way for morally bankrupt governments that are puppets of the military supply and financial Oligarchs to keep the propaganda machine pumping and serve their Oligarch masters.

FOOEY.

disgustedly,
Bright

...nor did they really want to be. China, sadly, seems to be proving otherwise. Beijing knows their economy is going to implode someday soon, and VIOLENTLY perhaps, and I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if they do finally engage in one last final big conflict before their country implodes completely.

But yes, we really do need to scale our military back WAY down. The Russians managed it. Why can't we?

...to defend ourselves against China? All China needs to do is stop buying our treasuries and this country will be in a world of hurt. This is another example of how war is a racket and military spending is killing this country.

:nuke: :nuke:

:wtf: :wtf:

look at how India is all of a sudden our best friend.

from the ME through the Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca.

That is where our true national security interests are - short of nuclear attack, it is the only place where we are truly vulnerable..

We only get involved when it's about oil. It's obscene.

your job, my job, every ones job depends on that oil reaching America or Japan. Think for a second what would happen if that oil supply was unexpectedly stopped - how long would it take for our economy and civil order to collapse?

per kwh from the giant windmills about five miles from here. That powers my new Leaf, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. Our house is also total electric.

We would shift, just as we did from whale oil to petroleum, just as we did from wood to coal to peat as those ran out.

The switch itself would create millions of jobs here and would permanently kill the prosperity of the oil pushers.

I'd welcome it. And yes, I live in the middle of the largest domestic oilfield, and yes, I worked in that filthy industry in a management position for ten years, so yes, I actually know what I'm saying.

Brzezinski wrote it, both Repug and Dem admins carrying it out. Just the preface is enough to curl your hair.

Competing with China and Russian for every increasingly scare resources is exactly what the grand plan is all about, no more, no less.
And Iran is a huge obstacle to that plan.

The Establishment LOVES Iran! Or at least, they have since 1979..........

For pete's sake......we should be shrinking our footprint and not expanding it. We need to shut down all our bases in Europe and scale back in Japan and Korea.

Did you bother to read the article?


Several Asian nations, fearful of the threat China poses, also are beefing up their arsenals, fearing that the U.S. security umbrella is being eroded by China's enhanced capabilities and possible U.S. defense cuts.

and education for American students and jobs for those graduates. Giving away free umbrellas prevents that.

actions around the world but to date the term has not been defined. I think it has to do with the world's resources, oil, gold, minerals, etc. Would identifying "US interest" meet with opposition from the citizenry?

our economy depends on the flow of oil from the ME through the IO and the Straits of Malacca.

mmmmmm

to defend them

China is the one they are worried about

they want two things:

1. Geopolitical stability with the US countering China.

2. They want to avoid a regional nuclear arms race - which means the US has to stay in the region.

With US Secretary of State declaring "American Pacific Century", Australia, and any other
Pacific nation, should worry about the most aggressive imperial nation on earth with
unparalleled track record of military intervention in other countries' affairs. If Australia
wants to keep its resources and sovereignty for future generations, it should band together
and sign a mutual defense pact with China instead of stationing US troops on its territory.
This "yellow menace" crap is pure visceral and irrational racism. Australian elites would
rather be occupied by white folks as long as their private wealth is not questioned -
that's what it is, pure and simple.

Here is a list of countries that China has fought with, I excluded WWII, which was defensive and the internal fighting between the Communists and Chiang Kai Shek's government during WWII, which would be considered a civil war:
1949: Yangtze incident (the battle against British warships on the Yangtze river).
1950–1951: Reclaiming of Tibet
1950 to 1954: Korean War (Under the banner of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army).
1954 to 1955: First Taiwan Strait Crisis.
1958: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis at Quemoy and Matsu.
October 1962 to November 1962: Sino-Indian War.
1967: Border skirmishes with India.
1969 to 1978: Sino-Soviet border conflict.
1974: Battle of the Paracel Islands.
1979: Sino-Vietnamese War.
1986 and 1988: Border and naval skirmishes with Vietnam.
1995 to 1996: Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.

my original statement.

"Whom did China occupied, attacked or bombed ever?"

So you get a list of countries that China has attacked and occupied (Tibet) and you'll continue to state that China is not a danger to it's neighbors and the region. Sure glad you're not in charge of foreign policy.

since the 13th century and its independence was never recognized internationally. So there goes
that argument. The fact that China does not have any military bases or in fact any troops stationed
on foreign soil can't be disputed either.

and we have come quite a bit from your statement "Whom did China occupied, attacked or bombed ever?"

And maybe the reason that China does not have any military bases or in fact any troops stationed
on foreign soil is because no foreign government has asked them to stay, unlike US troops who have been asked to stay by the governments of Japan, South Korea, Germany, United Kingdom, Kuwait among others.

asked so nicely. What would those poor governments do without them? They love foreign troops so much, they would probably have to ask
China for the favor. People of those countries? Not so much. Hardly anyone in Australia wants American troops here. Or Australian troops
in Afghanistan for that matter. That sentiment appears to be strictly limited to parliamentary leadership of both major parties. Curiously,
that seems to be the only issue on which they are in total consensus, while being both opposed to the public opinion.

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Sighhh...no politician is perfect, and Paul has good ideas on foreign policy but nutty ones elsewhere. Obama still sold out to the MIC.

But he's polling so low they shut him out of the debates.

Du needs to hold a bake sale so we can help out the MIC.

while rotting within. We are following a proven path to irrelevance.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/kangaroo%20scrotum%20purse?_dmd=1&_sop=12&clk_rvr_id=251452752124

If the Chinese get their hands on advanced marsupial nutsack technology, our very way of life would be at risk!

can we just QUIT SPENDING MONEY ON GUNS!!!!

:nuke:

this is anything like fucking kangaroos, we're going to need all the room we can get!

Oops, I led with the punch line....

"countering China's influence" "designed as a demonstration of U.S. commitment to the region," oh for fucks sake...what the hell ever. stop feeding the pentagon pig.

....follow follow, follow the yellow brick road....

"...will allow U.S. forces to place equipment in Australia and set up more joint exercises..."

"...It was unclear how much the new presence would cost the Pentagon..."

....it's always unclear when it comes to never-ending military shit; and we're so broke that Grandmas must eat cat food....yet we're off to bust the budget, in the wonderful land of OZ....

the United States already has a sizable presence in the Indian Ocean.

There's a future struggle brewing here.

Don't buy the hype.

The Chinese have modernized their military forces since 2000 into a more mobile, highly trained, well equipped force. But by no means do they have their sights on Asian domination. Between South Korea, Russia and India they are pretty much boxed in.

They are on the verge of a housing bubble, serious environmental damage that will slow their growth away from urban centers, etc. In short, don't buy what the MIC is selling.

:wtf:

What's REALLY going on?