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Oz Defence and the Price of Political Subservience to America
by major mitchell Friday, Feb 18 2011, 6:45pm
national / social/political / commentary

I will only elaborate here, as a running history of our treasonous politicians’ absolute servitude to Washington at the EXPENSE OF OUR NATION’S REAL DEFENCE CAPABILITY is available for reference on this site. From disastrous submarine purchases to the recent inferior quality and costly Superhornet purchases (at Washington’s insistence) Oz politicians have not only been GROSSLY derelict in their duty but downright TREASONOUS! We are now less capable in the region than we were prior to recent defence ‘upgrades.’ Indonesia has countered our ill-advised, INCOMPETENT purchases with less costly but FAR SUPERIOR weaponry and aircraft purchased from Russia – not to mention Singapore, soon to PURCHASE OUR STOCK EXCHANGE, and China’s expanding role in the region.

Shirley Temple could do a better job in Defence

Successive SERVILE and thoroughly incompetent Australian governments have allowed OUR defence capability to deteriorate to such an extent that regional foes and partners alike are now openly commenting on our defence INCAPABILITY. The cure is simple, RETROSPECTIVE accountability -- HEADS MUST ROLL and ALL TRACES of the ‘ROT’ must be REMOVED from Canberra if we are to regain strategic balance and some stability in the region again!

Take a look at the line-up would you -- it was Keating and Hawke that sold us to Wall Street Banksters but it was USELESS and shamelessly subservient Howard, Rudd and Gillard that allowed our critical defence capability to collapse.

Until such time as we install REAL AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENT LEADERSHIP to high office, the situation can only get worse. And don’t give me that crap about a ‘helpless small nation’ – Oz is of CRITICAL STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE in the region and is able to exert huge political pressure if it so chooses! Historical lessons are plenty; Tito’s post WWII Yugoslavia is a good example, this tiny, materially powerless Balkan nation maintained sovereignty and a great deal of influence by simply ‘playing the superpowers.’ Tito was an astute politician and fervent nationalist – something that doesn’t exist in Canberra at the moment! Nevertheless, there is NO SHORTAGE of C-A-P-A-B-L-E, PATRIOTIC LEADERS in the country but the influence of Corporatists and Washington must be eliminated if we are to regain our former status and indeed ADVANCE our interests in the modern geopolitical world.


Report from China’s Xinhua follows:

Australia has limited ability to deploy its defence forces overseas
by Michael Keating, Vienna Ma

CANBERRA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Program Director at the Australian Strategic and Policy Institute (ASPI), Dr Andrew Davies on Friday expressed his concerns that Australia has limited ability to deploy its defense forces overseas.

Earlier, Australian Defense Minister Stephen ‘knee pads’ Smith publicly blasted his department over its failure to keep its crucial landing ships seaworthy and said there are "cultural and systemic failures in the Australian Defense Force".

Smith then drafted an expert committee to find out why three of the Royal Australian Navy's biggest ships, HMAS Manoora, HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Tobruk, were out of action when the government wanted them to help out in the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi.

After a review by the Chief of Navy, Vice-Admiral Russ Crane, it was discovered that Australia has a very limited operational capability to deploy its forces overseas. In Particular, it was discovered that Australia has no amphibious lift capability.

According to Dr Davies, Australia has now reached a situation, where the Australian government could make requests of Navy and Navy would be unable to fill it.

In refer to Smith's actual meaning on "cultural and systemic failures in the Australian Defense Force", Dr Davies said he was talking about not only their failure to manage the capability, but failure to keep government informed of the state of the capability.

"Well, in the case of the amphibious ships what it means is, if the Australian Defense Force had to deploy ground troops or support equipment or do an emergency evacuation or humanitarian relief they would be very limited in what they can take by surface, " he told Xinhua reporter on Friday.

"At the moment our ability to do that (deploy its forces overseas) is very limited."

Dr Davies identified one of the big problems with defense is the diffusion of responsibility, as there is no single person the department can point at and say that person is responsible for keeping the amphibious ships at sea.

"The Chief of Navy has some responsibilities the Defense Material Organization has some responsibilities, contractors have some responsibilities, but no one person is actually accountable and I think that's one of the things that's frustrating the government," he said.

Dr Davies said setting up an independent panel to look into these issues is not the solution in itself but it is a step to formulating the solution.

Meanwhile, Dr Davies said China and India regions have been developing quite strong costal navies in recent times, and are becoming more significant in military projection across the Asia- Pacific.

In the past Australia has been able to keep at the forefront of military capabilities generally across the Asia-Pacific. However, Dr Davies thinks that over the next few decades there will a shift in the power balances.

"The United States has been the unchallenged supreme military power across the entire world since the end of the Cold War, but that's not going to be the case into the future," he said, pointing to the rapid growth of Asian countries.

ASPI is an independent defense and strategic affairs think tank that was set up by the Australian government to provide a line of advice on matters independent of the Department of Defense and Foreign Affairs.

© 2011 Xinhua News Agency

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-02/18/c_13739047_2.htm