freediver wrote Today at 12:03pm:


OH, you can criticise them to your heart's content but you need to understand what actually happened and why.  The Indonesians had a bee in their bonnet about West Papua being Dutch, despite it never having been a part of the Netherlands East Indies colony.  Suharto demanded that it be ceded to him, rather in the manner Trump is demanding Greenland. He staged an invasion attempt.  The Dutch repelled his forces.  The Dutch sent an aircraft carrier and some ships to defend it but balked at the cost of stationing them so far from home.  Canberra made some belligerent noises but lacked the forces. Washington was more interested in assuring freedom of navigation for it's SLBM carrying submarines from Guam and refused our request for support.  Canberra was forced to back down and agreed to the Dutch signing over the administration to the UN.  The UN decided to sign the administration over to Indonesia who held a mock referendum amongst the Papuans.  Canberra, alarmed at the US response began taking a greater interest in world events and got involved in South Vietnam and forced the American commitment.  We became involved in our longest military commitment before Afghanistan.  Tsk, tsk, tsk... 

freediver wrote Today at 12:29pm:


You can protest all you want, Australia surrendered that right in 1961.  Tsk, tsk, tsk...