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The Forum > Article Comments > Generals and Diggers saved the day in Timor > Comments

Generals and Diggers saved the day in Timor : Comments

By Sasha Uzunov, published 20/11/2008

Australia’s involvement in East Timor partly succeeded because of Indonesia's reluctance to fight a full scale war.

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This is a good article in that it highlights the sorts of contradictions that are perpetuated inside the Canberra system i.e. that decision-makers with no hands-on experience in key specialist areas like the military and intelligence are able to so heavily influence matters such as the deployment of troops to East Timor. This is not to say that civilians have no role to play; rather that those who do find themselves involved in such decision-making processes have an obligation - moral, professional and intellectual - to learn something about the practical issues entailed, from experienced people around them. There's no shortage of solid, uniformed performers in Defence who can educate them. The fact that some civilians show no interest in doing so (in fact, even shunning the opportunity) is a breach of the trust they are supposedly committed to as public servants.
Posted by Warren Reed, Thursday, 20 November 2008 12:27:46 PM
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Well said Sasha and Warren. Just at the moment everyone in the ADF,indeed the APS, seems a little wrung out. Perhaps they could join the Navy in taking 2 months off over Xmas.
Actually the holiday stunt was thought up as a way to save money, in the face of expected recession/depression cuts. Perhaps Australia should go on holidays for 12 months and come back on deck when all the nastiness has blown over, oh I forgot, it's not really going to affect Australia.
Nontheless I'd be keeping a weather eye out for regional instability over the next few years.
Bruce Haigh
Posted by Bruce Haigh, Friday, 21 November 2008 9:49:03 AM
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Sasha's article is thought provoking even though I don't agree with all of it.

I WANT to believe the Cosgrove/slouch hat explanation for Indonesia's withdrawal. However - although the US is further geographically from Indonesia it is the US that has the most influence - more guns and more money to prop up the Indonesian economy and fight the chosen enemies of the Jakarta regime. PKI Kommunists one day, separatists another, fundamentalist Muslims the next.

Refuting the Digger Only myth "Stars and Stripes" March 20, 2001 reproduced an extract from an Australian Defense Force Land Warfare Studies Center report which said:

"Although the U.S. presence was not obvious in terms of troops on the ground, it was critical to the success of the mission," the [Australian] report states.

"There can be no doubt that the political leverage [the US] provided … and the substantial logistical, communications and intelligence support that only the U.S. military could provide enabled INTERFET to ‘box above its weight.’ " See much more http://www.stripes.com/01/mar01/ed032001k.html

Indonesian President Habibie and defacto rulers of Indonesia (TNI General) were being leaned on by Washington not to shoot at INTERFET. Hence Indonesian regular Army units backed down in East Timor.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/
Posted by plantagenet, Friday, 21 November 2008 3:39:41 PM
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Guys, you all seem to be pushing little flags around a map on this. For practical purposes, we need to consider the real push behind ET's ballot and independence - the IMF and its non-state (if not supra-state) oligarchy of financiers. At that time, Indonesia was just dragging itself out of its own mini version of this current global monetary crisis: any advice from such outfits as the IMF and World Bank was tantamount to direct orders.

The saddest part of such old-fashioned or nostalgia-inspired view of "national interest relevancy" is that it assumes Australian sovereignty has not actually been smashed by Globalization. As this current monetarist disintegration continues apace, you must realize by now that Oz sovereignty has been sent down the river long ago. Or maybe a more apt analogy is pack rape by a mob of roaming global usurers; the irresponsible and corrupt state has put itself into a worse state of vulnerability than a pimp or streetwalker does when plying trade in a quiet, dark industrial zone with no cop patrols.

Funny enough, things for Indonesia seem rather different now and these past few years: an informal and practical Russian alliance, with many defence aspects, disproves the assumption that some mythical "west" is still idolized there (an absurd notion after Iraq anyway). Besides which, Indonesia has already accustomed itself to its own more isolated precedent of such a meltdown at the mercy of "philanthropists" like Soros. Indonesia is clearly not immune this round either, but it will be interesting to see how far its state and real economy have built up resistance.

Pity that the WB-stewarded East Timor holds no such prospect.

A shame too about the dodgy finance deals for JSF (Indon used barter to get its Russian Sukhois).
Posted by mil-observer, Friday, 21 November 2008 5:31:35 PM
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Appropriate big rap for Sapper General Frank Hickling, and a window on politicians being set on a path by frock coated quill drivers.

Pity is we no equivalent of Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, ex school teacher, ex company commander WWI, and the first contemporary battlefield analyst, whom could be labelled at least the first commentator on "blitzkrieg" and the modern battlefield. He had a plaque on his wall from General Moshe Dyan, "...to the Captain who teaches Generals..."

Would our media Barons would permit or even employ such a person, regardless of the colour of government in Kanberry Creek?

Thanks Sasha
Posted by SapperK9, Monday, 24 November 2008 11:56:33 AM
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Oops, sorry, forgot to mention that many forget that the ET airfield was secured for the Australian insertion/deployment by the Gurkhas...
Posted by SapperK9, Monday, 24 November 2008 12:03:03 PM
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