This part of the planet is starting to head towards real defence issues with Australia and The States disagreeing on where the future lays with combat and how to prepare. Australia wants to equip the military for more conventional warfare and The States is heading in the direction of more unconventional warfare like with what you're seeing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Already the Pentagon has announced cuts.

The reason this is coming about is due to the massive arms build up China is going through right now and the potential of India with Pakistan heading towards HUGE dramas. That sucker is a nuclear powered locomotive without brakes. Dramas there isn't 'if', but 'when'.

It seems to me that resource defence is going to be a huge thing in the future with a glimpse of it happening in Iraq at the mo. Obviously it would be unpopular for Australia to take an offensive role in SECURING resources so defence of current resources - (whether they be owned by Au, or others, but accessed by Au) - is going to be the future role. Pre-emptive strikes aren't out of the question though.

China being what it is - (communist, big, not all that concerned about human rights) - are going to begin to look for more resources to feed the mammoth thing it is. It's just inevitable.

The question is, do we prepare now, or when they're securing the sub-continent?.

A bit paranoid isnt it?

Neither China nor India has acted with anything but friendliness towards us why would you defame them like this?

Australia, being so large, inhospitable and isolated would be an almost impossible country to conquer and especially since I believe (as did the Japanese during WWII) that every man woman and child here would fight to the death to stop an invasion of our homeland. Al Queda would pale in comparison with us Aussies if we were occupied.

the fiji thing is about international globalists stealing the natives land[i recall keating involved with the scam to steal the best lands[re an abc report last year]

all the rest is re israel intrests and globalists, taking control[georgia was sponsered by the usa[read israel] giving arms and training to the bolcvhovist president,to boxin[read control russia oil/gas from the eu

#the somalia thing was usa [via israel] getting rid of some arab orders, then egypt[the israelie stooge]fishing out the somalie food

iraq well we know a million iraquies died so israel has a nice conveniant attack point to take out iran, the media well who runs that [and the wrathchild run banking cartel well guess who]

seems the best regional defense is clear..[stop fighting other peoples wars]but no we are ordering heaps more usa arms[to keep our low parity with the yanki dollar so the israelies can get their trillion us subsidy in euro's]

seems there is a war race runjing the planet for ever more defense spending[but invasion only affects who is raping you this time[see indonesia, was run by the dutch cartel,..then the japs then the yanks then the java-nese,..but it was the same bankers who banked the spoil into swiss and chinese banks...lol..regardless of who stole it from them..lol

remember the richest guys are those in charge of bying the weopenry of war, lets make our own arms industry[we invented the metal storm, now supressed teqnology ,that fires a million rounds a minute,..

#[not a missprint]..its a thousand ballels electicly detonated with each barrel packed, with hundreds of rounds,looks much like a condenser tube array[lets just put one of them on each corner, next to the vidio cameras]then let preople know they are there.

look the thing is NO ONE can hold australia[except the people who live here[give me back the guns the police stole...and no one will be tempted to invade an armed nation..just like the japs didnt

peace eh

StG,
You have it all wrong, you need re-educating. We now live in a 'global villiage' where there will be no future conflicts about resourses, race, religion or anything else. So cut the defence spending and use the savings on 'humanities', like feeding those that have famine so they can breed more and more. Do nothing to reduce populations in starving countries.

According to some we should completely open our borders because 'people have a basic right to move at will'. No visas required. Let them come here as we have plenty of room and a good social security programme. Centrelink and Medicare cards issued on arrival to all.

On another thread here and now, there is an academic advocating that we let non-citizens vote in OUR elections. Now that is a good idea, worthy of a Uni education, why did I not think of that?

I expect you to present yourself to the next intake for re-education so you may then be free of the stupid ideas that we need to consider our countries defence.

I'm not sure that China needs to bother threatening us with force.

Get hold of a copy of Peter Wilkinson's "The Howard Legacy" and the story of that Government's refusal to train Australians, preferring the import of skills from China. Universities have been used for this. They claim to be selling degrees to overseas students - mainly Chinese - when, in reality, they are selling resident visas to Chinese who have paid for their studies, had help when they have failed and when their 'iffy' degrees are gained, they stay here to become part of a Chinese elite in the professions and commerce - just as they have throughout SE Asia. All at the expense of Australians.

The Rudd Government is continuing to do this, of course. Rudd will probably do it much better than Howard, being a Sinophile.

Add to a Chinese cognitive elite in Australia the $500,000,000 or so per week Labor is borrowing from China, and we will be for ever beholden to the Chinese. And, lets not forget their buy up of our natural resourcess.

China does not have to use military force against us; it already has us firmly in its grip.

I agree with mikk, beating the 'yellow peril' drum like this is driven more by paranoia than by any rational assessment of the situation.

The best way for Australia to build self defence capacity, if that's what you see as important, is to engage fairly in the region and beyond and to act as a good neighbour to others. This in turn will foster good relations and minimise the chances of resentment building to the point of any contemplation of a forceful takeover of our resources.

There are many and varied ways to do this. To begin with, we can do far more to assist island nations in our region already experiencing the effects of global warming and rising sea levels. We need to share resources fairly and avoid exploiting those rightfully belonging to others, as with East Timor's oil and gas deposits, for example. We must also do our share to protect the region's refugees rather than spending millions every year keeping them out.

We should share our expertise and assist developing nations on their own soil, rather than creaming off their best and brightest for ourselves, as we often tend to do. We need to be good neighbours to all and not align ourselves exclusively to one nation as we have. Military bases on our soil not only make us a target, but make a loud and unhelpful statement about our national bipartisanship. Our trade deals also must be fair, open and inclusive and avoid cutting countries out of the loop, as bilateral trade agreements motivated more by self interest than regional cooperation tend to do.

Reaching out to our neighbours and engaging with them is the key to our security. We can't afford to keep pouring money into the bottomless pit of building up military capacity. Not only do we have more urgent needs for the money, but it's counter-productive anyway. Building walls will only breed suspicion and resentment among our neighbours. It's making friends that will keep us safe.