BigOl64 wrote on Jul 12
th, 2017 at 6:07pm:
Pretty plane doing airshow while our nearest neighbours were being slaughtered in their 10s of 1000s is doing fkk all, a sure sign of a coward is what they do or don't do when a neighbour or friend is under attack. And under hawke keating we did what cowards do, but we did have cool stuff to play with will people were being killed.
If you're referring to East Timor, we did what was what we considered appropriate at the time. Don't forget, we were not in a position to resist the Indonesian invasion in 1975. We had just finished the Vietnam War, a war which had divided the nation. We were ill prepared to consider our adequate defence forces being required to undertake an offensive counter-invasion. Also, we would have been protecting and supporting a hard-line Marxist regime which the US had OK'ed as being ripe for the picking by Suharto and Co. One does not blunder in war, one plans one's way (although it appears President Trump hasn't never learnt that).
We actually trained the Indonesian Armed Forces to teach them how to properly fight counter-revolutionary warfare. It reduced the numbers of East Timorese which were killed substantially. Suharto was a tough bugger, for sure but he like all dictators was eventually deposed and then we intervened to stop the East Timorese being slaughtered under the auspices of the UN Security Council.
Quote:And by munitions I am talking about the likes of Harpoon and AMRAAM Missiles, not a few thousand rounds of 7.62. As for the F35 if it is anything like the Pig we have a few decades of work before it comes good.
Munitions covers all armaments, BigOl64. You're betraying your limited knowledge and understanding. We might not manufacture Harpoons or AMRAAM but we have access to the US military's stocks of those weapons. It is one of the few good things to come out of the A**US Treaty. 7.62x51mm ammunition is no longer the standard round fired. You're a generation behind, nearly two in fact.
Quote:I would hate to see this country adopt conscription, if you want to hide with the women and children there you should stay.
Look back at the previous times it was attempted to and was introduced. In WWI they fought three bitter conscription referendums and lost them all. In WWII, the Japanese were knocking on the door and it was accepted grudgingly. In 1965, it was introduced and gradually rejected. Australians don't like being told what to do, unless there is an emergency evident to them. No Australian Government unless faced by an existential threat is going to even think about trying to introduce it again.