Albie Manton,

At no point have I suggested that linking to non-peer-review material is a bad thing, so your mockery is misdirected and only comes across as petulant.

AJ Phillips, thanks... I resemble that remark !

Steele, let's not mention that elephant in the room, nor even point at it and call it a giraffe. The recent series of Defence White Papers, written by academics, "experts" - if you want to call them that, reflect the same sentiments. As you've seen me relate the thoughts of those crusty old CPO's from years ago, we have been blinkered and fed a steady diet of BS.

http://www.regionalsecurity.org.au/resources/Documents/SC%2012-1%20Laksmana.pdf

I note with great concern the comment at p169, "Aside from being cautious in proposing defence engagement activities, and
being prepared to recalibrate policies to account for the rapidly changing bureaucratic and domestic politics, Canberra might want to consider expanding its strategic engagement beyond the government-to-government (and military-to-military) exchanges."

Yes, and let's invite Kopassus back in with a good old smoking ceremony and welcome to country out at Mt Bundey, share a few Bungarra's on the barbie, 'tactics' and hell why not, show them through our armouries and Q Stores just for good measure !

Well thankyou Steely. Anything you disagree with so profoundly is probably very close to the right course of action.

Perhaps you have heard the old one about keeping your allies close, & your enemies even closer.

I am not strong enough to want to keep my enemies all that close, so keep your distance, but perhaps Trump is strong enough. To have survived & made billion in New York, he must be pretty damn good at handling enemies, & he has the guts to tell the decedent Europeans a few home truths. Any one who could foist the EU bureaucracy on their population deserve it in spades.

Thank god there is a leader in the western world who does not mind being disliked, even hated, we need someone with the guts.

Tony Abbott could have been a good PM, but he did not have the necessary guts to tell it to the clowns as it really is. He wanted to be liked. Bloody idiot, wanting to be liked by a green/lefty is just stupid, a recipe for failure.

Dear Hasbeen,

You wrote;

“I am not strong enough to want to keep my enemies all that close, so keep your distance“

Oh come on mate, don't be such a snowflake. You started this thread with over-opinionated and bombastic diatribe lashing out at all those European lefties. All I have done is adopt a similar tone toward your adoration of the Trump.

Ultimately sir we are both anonymous entities to the other, hardly deserving of the title enemy. But if that really is your slant then it is a free world.

Anyway back to the inane cage rattling.

You wrote;

“Thank god there is a leader in the western world who does not mind being disliked, even hated, we need someone with the guts.”

What tosh. The Europeans were never going to bite back but the Saudis either economically or through their proxies certainly have the will and capacity if they so desire.

Like most bullies Trump wimped it.

You sir and your ideas are a danger to my country. If, god forbid there is another attack on our soil or on Australians abroad and the perpetrator's radicalisation can be linked to Saudi money then you will be held accountable.

In the end mate you have to decide where your loyalties lie, to a oranged topped wimp of a President in thrall to Saudi money, or us Australians. I know this will be a struggle for you but please try and do the right thing.

Oh my god, what utter twaddle.

The only ones on here who need an injection of patriotism is you lefties.

It is your attitudes, if allowed to control our future, that will make my grandkids future country, not only much more dangerous, but hardly worth living in.

You & those like you, are the most dangerous people in Australia.

Dear Hasbeen,

Dream on my friend.

It is you who thinks Trump coddling up to the Saudis is good for Australia.

"Wahhabist money going into Indonesia is one of the things that has started to undercut the traditional accommodating and syncretist view of Islam in Indonesia," says Allan Gyngell, former head of Australia's peak intelligence body, the Office of National Assessments, and former head of the Lowy Institute.
"In fact, it's been a far more dangerous trend, I think, than some of the things that have received more publicity, like some of the extremist groups such as al-Qaeda."
How? "These groups are very important in their own right, but the money going into the madrassas has been undercutting the foundation of Indonesian Islam, helping to reshape the conventional approaches to Islam in Indonesia. Young people won't turn out extremist, but they will have a more puritanical, less accommodating view of Islam. It is undermining pancasila, the thing that, from the beginning, has kept Indonesia together and been profoundly beneficial to Australia."
King Salman announced $US1 billion in social aid for Indonesia, including money for schools, and a $US6 billion injection into Indonesia's state-owned oil firm. He announced unlimited flights between the two countries. His most popular gift, however, was an extra 50,000 places a year for Indonesian pilgrims making the hajj to Mecca and Medina.
The Saudis have been pressing for the tripling of the size of their Wahhabist university in Indonesia, which offers free tuition, and it is expected that Jakarta, reluctantly, will agree.
In the face of the Saudis' relentless, pernicious proselytising, what has Australia done? Cut its aid funding for Indonesian schools and more than halved the number of scholarships it offers to Indonesians to study in Australia.”
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/saudi-arabian-king-salmans-nineday-trip-to-indonesia-is-a-worry-for-australia-20170313-gux95l.html

But you in your adulation of Trump refuses to even go there. You want cuts to foreign aid and are quite happy to see Saudi money take its place to great risk to Australian lives.

Anyone who truly cares for this country would disavow Trump's actions in Saudi Arabia. But not you.

Traitorous is probably too kind a label.