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US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m (Read 2295 times)
falah
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US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Apr 24th, 2012 at 8:40pm
 
When did Labor become bigger sell-outs to the US than Malcolm Fraser?

US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser


THE former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser says the new American marine "base" near Darwin is a mistake, and that Australia's grovelling to Washington is hampering ties with Asia.

In a strongly worded submission to the federal government's white paper on future relations with Asia, Mr Fraser has criticised Australia's subservience to the US as a product of misguided assumptions America offers a security guarantee.

"Over 20 years now we have given the impression of doing that which America wants," Mr Fraser writes.

"We seem to believe that our security can be best assured if we do what we can to win brownie points with the US. This is a mistaken assumption.

''No country can really win brownie points with great powers. Great powers follow their own national interests and we should follow ours."

Mr Fraser is highly critical of the deployment of US marines in the Northern Territory, saying it fuels Chinese concerns over a policy of containment. He also dismisses claims by Labor and the Obama administration that the presence of the marines does not amount to a "base".

"For America to say that 2500 troops do not constitute a base is nonsense, indeed a fabrication," Mr Fraser writes.

"In military terms, a base does not have to be bricks and mortar. If 2500 troops are stationed in a particular place then the language makes it quite plain that they are based in that place. It is a base.

"To say that they are just passing through and that it is not a base is deceptive and misleading. It sends the wrong message, not only to China, but to countries like Indonesia."

He told the Herald he was also concerned Australia would lose more of its independence in Asia should the US turn Cocos Island into a base for unmanned surveillance drones, as reported last month in The Washington Post.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, commissioned a white paper last year guided by the former head of Treasury, Ken Henry, titled Australia in the Asian Century.

Mr Fraser said he had only decided to put his thoughts on paper after the marines' presence in Darwin was announced and reports of plans for a US military presence in the Cocos Islands emerged.

In his submission, he said he was not against the US alliance but for Australian independence.

He said in assessing what to do in the future, Australia should conscious of our history and a dependence on Britain before World War II: "We believed that Britain would be able to secure our future," he writes. "It never occurred to us that Britain would be so preoccupied, so beleaguered, that in a situation of emergency she would not be able to help."

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/us-marine-base-is-a-mistake-says...


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salad in
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #1 - Apr 24th, 2012 at 9:19pm
 
Why is it that knowledge on all matters comes to our alleged pollies when they retire?

What has Fraser got to say about poker machines? Let's hear from Mr Fraser with his views on people who are ugly; should they be drowned at birth? C'mon Mal, give us the benefit of your wisdom.
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #2 - Apr 24th, 2012 at 9:48pm
 
Big (old) Mal is on drugs..... Cheesy
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PZ547
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #3 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 4:55am
 
No, Fraser isn't on drugs.  He's saying now what he was prevented from saying as Prime Minister

He's drawing close to the end of his life and he'd be a fool if he wasn't somewhat concerned about what follows death

He figures if they kill him now, it won't matter.  But he figures they won't kill/silence him, because he's simply repeating what many have already said about the US presence in Oz.  And clearly, the US doesn't give a rat's about any opinion to emerge from little Australia where the government is cowed and owned and 'knows its place in the US scheme'

Australia is fortunate in its geographic location, but unfortunate insofar as its small population renders it permanently dependent upon greater powers.  That's the lot of Australia and its population and one we must accept

It's also the reason we have such a farce of government, regardless of which party is in power

Fraser knows we're dependent and controlled by greater powers and he knows there's bugger all we can do about it.  There's no chance we could swell our population to match that of the US.  We don't have a fertile heartland.  Instead we have the stony, infertile remains of an extensive inland sea

In any event, despite its advantages, even the US is coming apart, it's many industries in ruins now as result of profiteers choosing to outsource and Americans are looking to Australia as refuge (to their disappointment when its drawn to their attention that massive continents don't necessarily translate to lands of opportunity and personal safety, financial security, etc.)

So Fraser is simply voicing what many feel.  Yet he offers no solution.  To claim Australia has compromised/surrendered its 'independence' is absurb and Fraser cannot fail to be aware of that.  What 'independence' have we ever enjoyed ?  What 'independence' can we protect ?

We're twenty-odd million people on a massive chunk of rock without a hope of ever having the means to defend our own coastline

Add to this the fact that - according to Gillard recently - more than half or even 3/4 of our population was born overseas

To claim that migrants would defend Australia against the land of their birth should the situation arise is something our own and other governments routinely address via means of 'camps' for the duration.  Our government has no delusions about migrant loyalties during conflicts (or even in soccer games, Olympic Games, etc.)

So we must accept we will always be 'dependent' upon this or that foreign power

Our only choice (and we rank and file plebs don't make the decision in any case) lies in which foreign power we align with

Yesterday, it was Great Britain.  Today, it's the US.  Tomorrow - who knows

Sure, it would be great to declare ourselves 'neutral', but that neutrality would require to be recognised and accepted by the rest of the world for it to be respected and for our shores to be free of conflict.  A pipe dream, in other words

Be great for us to ban imports and become self-sufficient.  It could be done.  But as long as we're a vassal state of the US, the opposite will continue to be the case and we will continue to reluctantly accomodate US forces and participate in US engineered conflicts

We don't have the luxury of impending death, as does Fraser.  We have to continue to build lives and survive, for ever at the mercy of stronger powers, just a little pawn of a nation on the world's chess board
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #4 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 5:29am
 
i hope malcolm frazer dies soon

i  will celebrate
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #5 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 5:46am
 
they are all freemasons so whatever,

http://www.ashtarcommandcrew.net/profiles/blog/show?id=2859786%3ABlogPost%3A1511...

US government preparing for an Alien Invasion- Aparently in Australia!

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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #6 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 5:49am
 
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1705582/pg1

CHINA GIVES STERN WARNING TO USA & AUSTRALIA
UPDATE 8.55am: CHINA has issued a stern warning that housing extra US troops in Darwin may not be appropriate or in Australia's best interests.

US marines will conduct private exercises by themselves on Australian soil for the first time under a military build-up revealed just hours after President Barack Obama landed for a whirlwind Australian visit.

The historic move increases America's involvement in the booming Asia-Pacific region as a counter to the rise of China, India and Indonesia.

Reacting to the announcement, China warned the two countries may have overstepped themselves.

[link to www.heraldsun.com.au]
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ॐ May Much LOVE and CHRISTS LIGHT be upon and within us all.... namasté ▲ - : )  ╰დ╮ॐ╭დ╯
it_is_the_light it_is_the_light Christ+Light Christ+Light  
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Ex Dame Pansi
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #7 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 6:43am
 
<<
Reacting to the announcement, China warned the two countries may have overstepped themselves.>>
....................................................................

They sure as hell have, and to what end? If we stuck with our Asian neighbours we could have a prosperous and trouble-free future, but we'd rather play war games with the yanks.

Would you vote for a government that cares so little about its people?
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #8 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 7:43am
 
Quote:
US government preparing for an Alien Invasion- Aparently in Australia!

Has the Labor party made any attempt to gain an alien alliance? Why not?
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #9 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 9:14am
 
and theres me thinking we grovel to the Chinese.

isnt it them thats buying up all the cheap farms??

as far as I know the yanks aint buying anything..

I love it, I bet Fraser isnt labors second best friend anymore. Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin Grin


hilarious.
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #10 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 9:33am
 
I agree with Fraser on this. Obama (and any other american president) are looking out for americans interests only. Not ours. Not in any shape or form. We should not be doing everything they say and should look after our own national interests.

In fact I am actually starting to think the americans deserve ron paul. He will not only pull out of the other countries and leave us all the heck alone but he will give them their theocracy they seem to want.

SOB
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #11 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 10:40am
 
Capitalism? The Chinese leave yanks for dead.  Oz was clinging to the British empire as the tide went out, back from Singapore, back from Suez, back from anywhere except Falklands. Yanks aren't winning wars these days and don't have a space shuttle.
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #12 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 11:31am
 
PZ547 wrote on Apr 25th, 2012 at 4:55am:
Fraser knows we're dependent and controlled by greater powers and he knows there's bugger all we can do about it.  There's no chance we could swell our population to match that of the US.  We don't have a fertile heartland.  Instead we have the stony, infertile remains of an extensive inland sea


So why is the base a mistake?

It's simply economies of scale.  Mutual advantage.

I'm sure Fraser was abducted by commie aliens and given a brain transplant.  Ever since he lost his pants he's been a nutbag.........

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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #13 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 11:36am
 
I have the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet about 2 miles from my office window.

I don't see the problem in a few thousand marines there???
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Re: US marine 'base' is a mistake, says Fraser Read m
Reply #14 - Apr 25th, 2012 at 11:47am
 
Swagman wrote on Apr 25th, 2012 at 11:31am:
PZ547 wrote on Apr 25th, 2012 at 4:55am:
Fraser knows we're dependent and controlled by greater powers and he knows there's bugger all we can do about it.  There's no chance we could swell our population to match that of the US.  We don't have a fertile heartland.  Instead we have the stony, infertile remains of an extensive inland sea


So why is the base a mistake?

It's simply economies of scale.  Mutual advantage.

I'm sure Fraser was abducted by commie aliens and given a brain transplant.  Ever since he lost his pants he's been a nutbag......http://planetsmilies.net/alien-smiley-126.gif



What is the mutual advantage? What do we get out of it?

SOB
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