Australia: catch all

[Badmash]

Of current interest is the US force restructure and how it would see Australia as a "place to base" and what involvement in terms of basing and training within Australia our American readers would see as likely outcomes?

The view in Australia is that the most likely basing options are Darwin and Perth for the navy, with some ground based training at Bradshaw field, Cultana and the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.

Is any Pacific Rim engagement likely to be naval and USMC centric or is it likely to be tri-service as all three compete for the same pot of money?

Finally, does the Okinawa/Guam restructure mean that US forces are looking for training real estate?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Best

Badmash

[davidbfpo]

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:

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:

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

to bolster resistance to the Chinese challenge

[davidbfpo]

Two alternative Australian responses to the newly announced policy:

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

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

[davidbfpo]

A background article on the Australian-US alliance, which opens with the 1943 DoD advice for US troops going to Australia:

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!

[Ray]

Analysts say China stung by defence pact

CHINESE defence analysts have condemned what they see as Australia's contribution to the growing security rivalry between the US and China, noting that Darwin is comfortably within range of Chinese ballistic missiles.

But unofficial analysts and the media yesterday described the new Darwin base as a major step in American efforts to ''contain China'' by creating a ''net'' of defence ties stretching from Japan to Australia and India and including most of south-east Asia.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/an...117-1nl8p.html

Asia Pushes Back Against China

Beijing is caught in a diplomatic bear trap of its own making. After trying to bully the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) into not discussing disputes over the South China Sea at a summit this weekend in Bali, the territorial dispute is becoming the meeting's focus. ......

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

[Mark O'Neill]

A background article on the Australian-US alliance, which opens with the 1943 DoD advice for US troops going to Australia:

Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...Australia.aspx

One trusts that the USMC facilities in Darwin have central heating!

Darwin has 'central heating' built into the climate... it is in the Tropics. The weather there makes Miami look like Green Bay...

[Backwards Observer]

Stone the flamin' crows China, shut yer flippin' yap!

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:

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.

"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.

[Backwards Observer]

Pentagon Adds Military Force to Fight Cyber-Attacks

The Pentagon reports it reserves the right to use military force against cyber-attacks, taking a stronger offensive approach against the newest threats to homeland security.

Pentagon Adds Military Force to Fight Cyber-Attacks - Forbes - Nov 17, 2011.

...

China using WA satellite station to track navy

A SATELLITE ground station in the West Australian desert is being used by the Chinese military to help locate Australian and US navy warships in the region, an expert has warned.

The explosive claim has been made by the nation's foremost expert on space-based espionage, Des Ball, who says the government may have unwittingly acted against the national interest by allowing China to use the ground station at Mingenew to track Beijing's space satellites.

``This ground station would help China's space-based listening devices to more precisely locate the electronic emissions from aircraft carriers, destroyers and other navy ships,'' Professor Ball told The Australian.

``We're talking serious stuff here . . . why was the construction of this station never announced?''

China using WA satellite station to track navy - Perth Now - Nov 16, 2011.

...

Does this explain the USMC presence in Darwin? They're prepping for an attack on the verdomme quislings in Western Australia? Interesting times...or something.

[Ray]

US troops have landed in Darwin.

Await Chinese reactions!

[davidbfpo]

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:

...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

[Ken White]

Abu M's commentary is not an April Fool's comment...

It's just a little too cute...

Fortunately, most Strynes will ignore him. They tend to ignore all Pommy condescension. As they should.

[Mark O'Neill]

There is one current Wallaby who was born in Fiji, Radike Samo..

It is a bit like asking 'Why are all the kickers in the NFL Australian...' (well, the good ones, anyway...)


He was pretty much right about the rest of it......

But he forgot to mention that after FM3-XX / MCWFP 3-33.XX Counterdingo operations is published (after a celeb launch hosted by Eliot Cohen and featuring the re-formation of the CNAS COIN expert band with Ricks on backing vocals) we will studiously ignore it... until we next send a bright up-and -coming grad student to SAMS / Quantico who will come back with a 'new' idea that will look something like it and subsequently inform our conceptual force development for the next decade. After some 'unique' grammar laundering to make it look Australian.

Move along... no cultural cringe to see here...

[KingJaja]

I'm not an expert on Australia - US relationships, but apart from needlessly provoking China, what exactly is the point of this deployment?

I know China is the only justification for massive expenditures by the US Navy and Airforce, but China isn't exactly the Soviet Union. Australia's economy is heavily dependent on the Chinese and will continue to be in the foreseeable future. Thousands of Chinese students study in Australia etc.

What message are the Australians and Americans trying to send to the Chinese and is it a pointless message?

[Ken White]

Move along... no cultural cringe to see here...

I'm also not an expert or even mildly knowledgeable about Australia - US relationships but my limited experience with Australians leads me to suggest to an Australian, no less, that cultural cringe with reference to Australians is perhaps an oxymoron...

P.S.
I cannot believe you guys are wasting time and money on SAMS...

[Mark O'Neill]

P.S.
I cannot believe you guys are wasting time and money on SAMS...

Ken, Hence my point about cringe...

It is often discussed here in Australia how we as a society have continually sought 'affirmation' or 'inspiration' from others. To some extent that has also been true of our military thinking. Until 1942 ,we looked to the UK for this, since then , more so the US. A good example of this trait was our wholesale embrace of the 'Pentomic' Division rubbish in the 60s...