Darwin has 'central heating' built into the climate... it is in the Tropics. The weather there makes Miami look like Green Bay...Originally Posted by davidbfpo
Not necessary
Darwin has 'central heating' built into the climate... it is in the Tropics. The weather there makes Miami look like Green Bay...
tie me info strategy down sport
Stone the flamin' crows China, shut yer flippin' yap!
Australia Tells China Not To Interfere - AFP - Nov 18, 2011.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."
...
In previous non-interference news:
Al-Qaeda 'Praying For Obama Win' - news.com.au - Feb 11, 2007.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."
...
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.
paging mr. sharkey
Pentagon Adds Military Force to Fight Cyber-Attacks - Forbes - Nov 17, 2011.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.
...
China using WA satellite station to track navy - Perth Now - Nov 16, 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?''
...
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.
Last edited by Backwards Observer; 11-21-2011 at 08:30 AM. Reason: word adjustment
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:Whilst Dongara East is: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.I would assume in the event of damaging circumstances this network would be prone to "extended maintenance", if not outright cessation.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.
What is curious is whether the Australian government knew what was happening. Clearly the "informed public" did not.
davidbfpo
jIl moH ghajjaj jaghHomlIj!
Can't. keep. up. with. events!
Joint Army Exercises With China A Possibility - The Australian - Nov 22, 2011.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.
...
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."
alternate link - (google news)
ada gula ada semut
Once again, one reads with increasingly milder disbelief a measured piece of analysis in The Jakarta Post:
News analysis: Wither the Community, arise East Asia rivalry
If Indonesia and ASEAN had any pretensions that its touted East Asia Community could manage a dynamic equilibrium in avoiding a dreaded Cold War-like rivalry of alliances, then such notions were thrown halfway out the window last week.
Sandwiched between two major summits, APEC in Honolulu and the East Asia Summit in Bali, US President Barack Obama’s formal announcement of heightened military presence through a Darwin military base is a marker for what could be a drawn-out era of intra-regional rivalry.
The US, Australia, the Philippines (and more timidly Singapore and India), on the one side, versus a rising China on the other. While most of Southeast Asia caught in the middle being dragged one way or another.
Wither the Community, Arise East Asia Rivalry - The Jakarta Post - Nov 21, 2011.
...
Also relatively lucid:
The Bishop's Gambit - Sydney Morning Herald - Nov 23, 2011.The USA is here to stay
China's extraordinary economic growth in recent decades has led to considerable speculation about whether its rise will continue to be peaceful and the impact it will have on the existing world order.
Its strong performance has been contrasted in more recent times by the economic struggles of the world's super power, the United States.
This has led some pundits to theorise that the US may become a lesser force in the Asia Pacific, particularly as China's military build-up continues and it develops greater naval capability.
[...]
Commentators continue to pose the hypothetical that if there were military conflict between the US and China, Australia would have to choose between its closest military and strategic ally and its biggest economic and trading partner.
The closer integration of the US and Chinese economies makes this an unlikely scenario.
A more reasonable assessment is that Australia will continue to maintain its close historical and strategic relationship with the US and work assiduously to maintain the mutually beneficial economic relationship with China.
Let's face it, in World War 'Nam, the gringos are inevitably going to circle the wagons and send out foragers. One can only pray they know what they're doing.
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
davidbfpo
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