Australian Strategic Corporals on Operations in Somalia and East Timor
The Australian Army Land Warfare Studies Centre, Aug 08:
The World Looking Over Their Shoulders:
Australian Strategic Corporals on Operations in Somalia and East Timor
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This book describes the work of strategic corporals and their teams in two violent and devastated cities in the developing world: Baidoa in Somalia in 1993, and Dili in East Timor in 1999. Both cities had been destroyed by conflict and their citizens traumatised and displaced. In each case, the United Nations endorsed the deployment of international troops to take control. In Baidoa, Australian troops operated under American command to strict defensive ROE, seeking to protect the distribution of humanitarian aid. In Dili, under Australian command and empowered by a UN mandate, Australian troops had the freedom to take whatever measures were required to stabilise the situation, including the use of lethal force.....
....In both situations—in Baidoa in 1993 and in Dili and along the East Timor–West Timor border in 1999–2000—junior leaders and small teams had to make decisions carefully with higher level consequences in mind. The ROE were essential decision-making tools, but also effectively increased the pressure on the soldiers to make the right decision when they anticipated danger or were faced with an immediate threat. There are numerous anecdotes illustrating the challenges they faced, many of which remain untold. Those that were recounted have been included in this book, remarkable stories that bespeak the danger and isolation in which many of the most critical decisions were made by young soldiers. The narrative adds context to these decisions and necessarily reflects on their aftermath, consequences and, most critically, the lessons they contain.
Complete 197-page paper at the link.
Australian Defense Buildup
A white paper is little to get excited about, but it is Anzac day.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...10-601,00.html
New Australian Defence White Paper Released
Apparently 12 new subs (when we can only man 2 of the 6 we have now) and 100 JSF will let us do anything we want :confused:
As someone who wears green I guess I expected a return to the navy/air force answer to everything from this government. Seems to be lots of options still requiring development within the Army section in terms of force structure and capability etc.
Can't wait to see something beyond the UNCLAS version ... I may have a reasonable post-staff college future after all if this line is to be believed.
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The Army will require a greater ability to operate in proximity to civilian populations. The Government has decided that it will further develop the ADF's capacity to deploy specialists to conduct field intelligence and information operations.
http://www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper...paper_2009.pdf
A glimpse into why & what
Badmash,
From this faraway vantage point I do recall that Australia has been for a long time the home to a range of ostensibly shared intelligence facilities - although my source is Desmond Ball's now dated book published in 1980 'A Valuable Piece of Real Estate'.
Secondly I understood the USA had made limited, temporary use of Australian bases in the last twenty years, mainly by the USN and USAF.
I noted today The Daily Telegraph ran a short story, which opens with:
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President Barack Obama is expected to reveal plans to station about 500 to 1000 Marines at a barracks in Darwin and to expand the US navy's use of bases at the Northern Territory capital and in Perth in Western Australia.
It cites a former Australian official, now a professor:
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In Washington and in Beijing, this will be seen as Australia aligning itself with an American strategy to contain China...In the view from Beijing, everything the US is doing in the western Pacific is designed to bolster resistance to the Chinese challenge to US primacy.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ence-grow.html
Personally I don't think the potential new facilities, not bases, have a role in the strategic equation
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to bolster resistance to the Chinese challenge
Perceptions of the US-Australian relationship
Two alternative Australian responses to the newly announced policy:
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Yet, I wonder if future historians will see this as the moment where Australia fundamentally cast its lot in with the US.
Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...-the-ride.aspx
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We have been on the ride that Andrew refers to for some time; it just got a little faster.
Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...-alliance.aspx
A third article 'Why Washington wants a base here' is a succinct guide and points at the potential impact in the Indian Ocean:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...lian-base.aspx
We've mislaid the central heating?
A background article on the Australian-US alliance, which opens with the 1943 DoD advice for US troops going to Australia:
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You're going to meet a people who like Americans and whom you will like. The Australians have much in common with us – they're a pioneer people: they believe in personal freedom: they love sports...But there are a lot of differences too – like tea, central heating, the best way to send Sunday morning, or saluting officers and such. You'll find out about all those, but the main point is they like us, and we like them.
Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...Australia.aspx
One trusts that the USMC facilities in Darwin have central heating!
tie me info strategy down sport
Stone the flamin' crows China, shut yer flippin' yap!
Quote:
Australia tells China not to interfere
[...]
"Number one position from us, and it's based in absolute reality, is that this enhanced set of arrangements with the United States are not directed at any one country," he said.
At the same time, Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking China expert and former prime minister, warned Beijing not to get involved in Australian policy decisions.
"Let's just be very blunt about it, we are not going to have our national security policy dictated by any other external power. That's a sovereign matter for Australia," he said.
"We don't seek to dictate to the Chinese what their national security policy should be. Therefore this must be advanced on the basis of mutual respect."
Australia Tells China Not To Interfere - AFP - Nov 18, 2011.
...
In previous non-interference news:
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Al-Qaeda 'praying for Obama win'
[...]
The man who wants to be the first black US president has pledged to withdraw US troops from Iraq by March 2008, a timetable Mr Howard believes is dangerous.
"I think that would just encourage those who wanted completely to destabilise and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for (an) Obama victory," Mr Howard told the Nine Network.
"If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."
Al-Qaeda 'Praying For Obama Win' - news.com.au - Feb 11, 2007.
...
If China is sincere about Confucian values and not just engaging in rhetorical legerdemain, she should probably take this opportunity to radically recalibrate what is realistically achievable in an international scene largely characterised by vacuous egotism, shameless hypocrisy, crippling greed and a wilfully debilitating ignorance.
A measured policy of defensive disengagement coupled with an attention to the well-being of the Chinese people may be prudent for the foreseeable future, meanwhile salvaging what is left of her virtues after decades of brutal authoritarianism.
If China's rise is indeed peaceful, this should be self-evident from her political behaviour, just as it would be for any other nation. "He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good."
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few more impossible things to consider before breakfast.
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"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Alice in Wonderland.
China using WA satellite station to track navy
Good to know Des Ball is still active in this field.
He is an expert, I am an observer and find this very strange. The facility in Western Australia, there are two sites at Dongara, which are part of the Swedish-owned Swedish Space Corporation's PrioraNet satellite monitoring network. There are five similar stations in the USA and of the three network control stations two are in the USA. See:http://www.sscspace.com/products-ser...rioranet-sites
One site, Dongara West:
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is owned, operated and maintained by SSC’s US-based subsidiary, Universal Space Network (“USN”). USN functions under a US Government Special Security Agreement (SSA) and primarily serves US-Government and commercial customers.
Whilst Dongara East is:
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owned and maintained by SSC’s Australia-based subsidiary, SSC Space Australia. The station is operated from the SSC main station in northern Sweden at the Esrange Space Center. The Dongara East Satellite Station primarily serves government agencies and commercial customers.
I would assume in the event of damaging circumstances this network would be prone to "extended maintenance", if not outright cessation.
What is curious is whether the Australian government knew what was happening. Clearly the "informed public" did not.
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jIl moH ghajjaj jaghHomlIj!
Can't. keep. up. with. events!
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Joint army exercises with China 'a possibility'
Brendan Nicholson, The Australian, November 22.
AUSTRALIA and the US have embraced the idea of future joint military exercises with Chinese forces in the Top End.
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In Bali during the ASEAN summit, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono raised with Julia Gillard the possibility of Australia and the US inviting China to take part in exercises as a way to reduce tension with Beijing over the presence of marines in Darwin.
US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich told The Australian yesterday that inclusion of units from the People's Liberation Army in exercises was the sort of co-operation that could ultimately emerge as the US military training presence in Australia was stepped up.
Asked if he could envisage exercises in which Chinese soldiers trained in Australia with those from the ADF and the US, Mr Bleich said that was possible.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith said Dr Yudhoyono's proposal of trilateral exercises involving Australia, China and the US were "interesting and a positive suggestion for possible consideration in the long term".
Mr Bleich said the US had made it very clear to China that it wanted to bolster military ties between the two countries. "The more we share information, the more we train together, the more we communicate, the less likely it is that anyone's going to misunderstand one another," Mr Bleich said.
"And if issues do arise it's much easier to pick up the phone and talk to someone who you know, who you've worked with, who you trust to resolve those issues.
"That's part of what training accomplishes. It gives you a rapport, an understanding and a trust between forces."
Joint Army Exercises With China A Possibility - The Australian - Nov 22, 2011.
alternate link - (google news)
US bases welcome; we like to exercise too: strange?
To those "down under" maybe not a surprise. Sino-Australian defence co-operation carries on - after recent agreement on US basing - well, well. Chinese defence diplomacy has appeared elsewhere on SWC.
Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...jing-want.aspx
America is there for the dingo's?
Abu M's commentary is not an April Fool's comment, but it takes a rather unusual method to deliver a critique of the USMC arriving in Darwin. A taster:
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...inevitably, well-meaning U.S. Marines will offend Australians by asking awkward questions, like, "Why are all your rugby players from Fiji?"
Link:http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawam...australia.html