We should be grateful that the US is preparing for war becaus XiJinping has openly exhorted China to prepare for war. Australia needs America to establish and improve bases in the Pacific, including in Australia, to warn off China. Lord knows, we are pretty useless ourselves.

One nuclear submarine by 2040, when China is a threat NOW. The only politician who knows anything about war, retired Major General now Senator, Jim Molan, telling all and sundry - including the Chinese - how weak and unprepared we are. Enough fuel for a couple of weeks. Peter Dutton being told he is the best defence minister ever: but what is he actually doing except clamping down on wokeness in the military?

Everyone, from the Prime Minister down, has their heads firmly up their backsides in relation to the China threat. Does this complacency actually make us deserving of US support, I wonder.

Onya ttbn

For your information, Binoy Kampmark, when the first US soldiers arrived in Brisbane in 1942, my mother said "it was like the second coming of Christ". THAT is how much the Australian people saw the Americans. Not as "Imperialists", but as a fellow western democracy helping us in our greatest hour of need. Your family at that time was probably sympathetic to the Japs.

And for your information, Australia at that time had almost nothing to defend ourselves with, except that just about every man in Australia had a rifle and ammo. My ex soldier grandfather told my teenage mother and her younger sister that when the Japs invaded, he would shoot the pair of them through the head. Everybody knew what the Japs did to captured women.

To enlighten you further, Binoy, Australia's defence policy for 75 years has been to fight to the last American. Our defences are a joke and getting worse. The Australian Army (actually the Australian Infantry division) once had 220 Centurian tanks. Replaced by 110 German Leopard 1 tanks. Replaced by 55 first generation M1A1 Abrams tanks. See the pattern? When the Gulf War against Saddam began our Prime Minister of the time, John Howard wanted to send the Australian Army to help our allies. But the army chiefs said that all our "army" could do was guard the sheethouses at Dahran Air base.

What is worse is that for the last 75 years it is the Australian Army which has taken all the casualties in our interventions around the world, while they have always been at the back of the queue when it comes to defence allocations.

It may be fashionable among your peer group to forever sneer at the Americans. But the situation in regards to fascist China is so serious that even those complete morons running the white House right now can appreciate how serious it is. If you can not see how bad things are, then I can only say that you must have got your degree out of a corn flakes packet.