Ttbn

Wrong again.

That isn’t nasty as you describe, that is frustrated.

I have nil to no patience with the dead thinkers of the day, that see no problems with n Alliance continuing with the US. It has lost the plot, and if the lunatics from the Democrat asylum continue after November, Australia, instead of the slow march towards death with the fools, will need ever more urgently to run swiftly in the opposite direction.

Staying engaged with the US as currently is, can only be calamitous for Australia, as it obviously is with the current disasters of the Ukrain and Israeli war as evidence of US meddling . There is the evidence - plus the more as example, in my above musings.
So you either don’t read, or you don’t think. My conclusion.
Aspire to be the Kelpie dog mate, not the sheep.

And speaking of aspirational, there is historical evidence of how to play the superpowers against each other, and come out winning. We should have no loyalty to any of them outside of OUR own best interest, and currently that is not blindly following US dictates of the lunatics unleashed in Washington.

Its difficult to know where you're going when you don't know where you've been. To understand our future and future choices we need to understand or past. Yet we have people here who utterly misunderstand our past and even misunderstand our present.

We have people saying the US victory over Japan was luck of the draw. They also talk about Japan invading and conquering Australia (" we’d all be speaking Japanese by now.").

Neither of those things are true. Once the US decided on a policy of unconditional surrender against Japan, the conclusion was set. The US economy simply overwhelmed that of Japan. And the Japanese never had any intention of taking Australia. They had discussed it pre-war, but the army had concluded it was beyond their resources and of little strategic value.

What they did want to do was isolate Australia and not allow the US to us it as a base for operations - hence the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.

The US OTOH supported Australia, not out of brotherhood or because of their investments (another moronic claim from DD), but because they recognised the strategic importance of Australia, first as a base but more importantly as a theatre for operations against the southern flank of the Japanese empire. As Curtin pointed out the US (not that he needed to) in 1942, if Japan secured their southern flank, the next stop was the US west coast.

Failure to understand these things means a failure to understand the current parallel situation vis a vis China.

China doesn't want to conquer Australia. Again it is of little strategic value and holding and securing such a land mass would be beyond their ability and resources.

But China would love to see Australia knocked out of the US alliance so as to make their taking and holding their southern flank that much easier. Sure, our resources are attractive, but you don't need to conquer a territory to get its resources.

Australia isn't opposed to China because of fears of conquest. We are opposed because of the threat China poses to Australia's way of life. We are a trading nation utterly reliant on the free exchange of goods and the freedom of the seas that underpins that. China threatens both those things.

Additionally we are a nation that is part of the vast Western civilisation and China threatens that. The end of western civilisation is the end of Australia as we know it. We become a very different place.

And the US opposes China for the same reason - the defence of all that makes the US the great nation it is and underpins the wealth of its economy. China OTOH fights for the glory of its rulers and that's the difference.

Australia is but a small part of the international efforts to face the Chinese dilemma - Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam. India all see the Chinese threat to the world order and order in the world.

While a small player, our part is vital. We arm not to defend the homeland. We arm to check China's ability to wage war. Those who follow such things know that all the rockets and naval equipment we have or are aiming to have is designed to do one thing - close the Straits of Malacca thereby severe China's links to its markets and suppliers.

Australia fought in France and Turkey in the WW1 because or vital interests were dependent on a British victory, Britain then being the guarantor of the world trade system. We fight with the US for the same reason.

I liked AC's comparison of the threat to the West, and to Australia in particular, with a change in fashions. Some people are are definitely in denial, out of fear or ignorance. As with Japan during the war, Communist China is trying to cut Australia off from America. As I said earlier, the taking of Taiwan is part of the strategy.

DD

In future I will leave to your intolerance and frustrations. They are your problem, not mine.

mhaze

That’s laughable mate, and twenty years behind the times.