The US Alliance


Australia now figures more prominently in US foreign policy than at any time since 1942-45, when Australian combat troops served under General Douglas MacArthur and scores of US air and naval bases and army camps were stationed Down Under.

Australia is one of five US security treaty allies in the Asia-Pacific (Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines are the other four), it will increasingly matter more to Washington. Unlike the other allies, Australia is not involved in any territorial disputes with its neighbours. The country is at the fulcrum between the Pacific and Indian oceans and has a long history of engagement in this region.

For all of these reasons, deeper engagement with Australia – including through increased presence of US military, surveillance, and intelligence assets on Australian soil; additional rotations of US Marines through Darwin; greater access to airstrips in northern Australia; and, potentially, a base near Perth for US nuclear submarines – is necessary to bolster the United States' rebalance to Asia. Indeed, for Washington, the US-Australian partnership has become a special relationship with few equivalents in the world. But few outside a small circle of policy elites seem to have noticed.

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http://www.afr.com/news/world/north-america/how-the-us-and-australia-are-building-a-new-connection-20150304-13vi18

This edited piece is From The Fin Review a Faifax Publication...


The US-Australian relationship has deep roots, grounded in common histories, common traditions and values, and a common language – a powerful normative foundation that cannot be overlooked, but which is too readily taken for granted. . Close co-ordination and intelligence and technology sharing persisted throughout the Cold War. Now, the shifting geopolitics of Asia, particularly a rising China, has strengthened the bond.

Already, each year 1,500 US Marines spend six months near Darwin in northern Australia – a figure that is set to rise to 2500 by 2016-17. When the deal was originally struck during US President Barack Obama's visit to Darwin in November 2011, with the Gillard Government.

The New York Times described it as "the first expansion of America's military presence in the Pacific since the end of the Vietnam War". But the Darwin deployment is not even half the story. The two countries closely co-operate on intelligence; military, intelligence, and diplomatic personnel exchanges; and joint planning, exercises, and strategic consultations.

Since 2012, moreover, the Deputy Commanding General of the US Army in the Pacific has been an Australian.

Fin Review 

Pete,

I support the US-Australian alliance.

If we were ever attacked, we could not defend our shores on our own and it is unlikely that any other country would assist us.

The US helped Australians stuck in France during WWII when the British embassy was unable/unwilling to do so.  Also, there were no conditions attached unlike with the Australian government.

Tell us more Twilsy ....

Luckily both sides of Politics understand the importance ofthe US Alliance.

 

Exceprt of Julia Gillards speech to Congress 

 

There is a reason the world always looks to America.

Your great dream – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – inspires us all.


In both our countries, real mates talk straight.

We mean what we say.

You have an ally in Australia.

An ally for war and peace.


An ally for the sixty years past and Australia is an ally for all the years to come.

Geography and history alone could never explain the strength of the commitment between us.

Rather, our values are shared and our people are friends.

This is the heart of our alliance.

This is why in our darkest days we have been glad to see each other's face and hear each other's voice.

Australia's darkest days in the last century followed the fall of Singapore in 1942.

And you were with us.

Under attack in the Pacific, we fought together. Side by side, step by bloody step.

 

Distinguished Members of the Senate and the House Australia does not forget.

The ultimate expression of our alliance, the ANZUS Treaty, was not signed until 1951.

But it was anticipated a decade earlier.

In the judgements – the clear, frank and accurate judgements – of an Australian Prime Minister.

And in the resolve – the extraordinary, immovable resolve – of an American President.

In the decades since, we have stuck together. In every major conflict. From Korea and Vietnam to the conflicts in the Gulf.

Your darkest days since Pearl Harbour were ten years ago in Washington and New York.

And we were with you.

My predecessor John Howard was quite literally with you and he came to this Capitol when you met on September 12 to show you that Australians would be with you again.

And after fifty years, under a new Prime Minister and a new President, the ANZUS Treaty was invoked.

Within Australia's democracy, John Howard and I had our differences. But he was and is an Australian patriot and an American friend, a man who was moved by what he saw here in that terrible September.

When John Howard addressed you in 2002 we were already with you in Afghanistan.

And we are there with you today.

I want you to know what I have told Australia's Parliament in Canberra - what I told General Petraeus in Kabul - what I told President Obama in the Oval Office this week.

Australia will stand firm with our ally the United States.

Our friends understand this.

Our enemies understand this too.

THE latest release of WikiLeaks cables raise a question: at what point does a person become a spy?

Bob Hawke was by far the US Embassy in Canberra's most highly placed and reliable informant, over the years 1973 to 1976, the most riotous period in Australian political history.
It is not suggested Hawke betrayed Australia; but he routinely dished the dirt to the Americans, especially on the failings of his Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam.

The Americans found Hawke's language on Whitlam too blue to relate even in secret cables.
''Direct quotations in this report will be difficult as Hawke used short words of emphasis not suitable for family newspaper,'' an embassy cable joked in late 1973, noting Hawke's disgust that Whitlam had ''begged'' campaign money from Jewish business figures in 1972 but then betrayed them with pro-Arab policies.

By 1974, as Whitlam's unpopular government began to suffer from chronic mismanagement,
Hawke complained to the Americans of Whitlam's ''stupidity'' and advised the PM could not be trusted to run the economy ''any place but down''.

The exchanges were mutually beneficial, with cables noting the Americans routinely assisted Hawke, then president of both the ALP and the ACTU, with his travel plans to the US and by facilitating high-level meetings.

Australia should acquire Nuclear powered submarines
HENRY BELOT | NOV 04, 2013 12:48PM
Crikey

Australia’s six submarines are in poor condition and are due to be retired in 2025. Should nuclear-powered vessels replace them?


As Australia’s unreliable and ageing submarine fleet faces retirement, a leading nuclear engineering expert is urging the Abbott government to consider leasing nuclear-powered submarines from the United States.

Stefaan Simons, director of the UCL International Energy Policy Institute, believes that developing a nuclear-powered submarine capability presents no greater challenge to Australia than developing a modified conventional fleet.

Simons told Crikey ”a reactor could be leased to Australia, probably as part of a US Virginia Class Submarine. Hence, there is no need for Australia to have a nuclear power industry, although, of course, this could eventually be a spin-off.”

The Australian Navy is facing a looming “capability gap” and may not have a single deployable submarine once the six much-maligned Collins Class submarines, which are in poor condition, are retired in 2025. In most cases, only two or three submarines are operational at any given time. On occasion, none have been operational.


Importantly, the 2013 defence white paper released by then-defence minister Stephen Smith categorically ruled out replacing the Collins Class fleet with nuclear-powered subs. But there’s been a change since then, and some within the non-proliferation movement see little to fear in nuclear submarines.

Ramesh Thakur, director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament at the ANU’s Crawford School of Public Policy, told Crikey that nuclear-powered submarines make a lot of sense for Australia. “They can be at sea for much longer periods. They are a lot less noisy and can therefore be much harder to detect by enemy forces,” said Thakur.

“…
Supporters of nuclear-powered subs often see a clear delineation between propulsion and armament. As Thakur told Crikey: “Being nuclear-powered by itself does not have any implications for weaponisation. Nuclear weapons are ruled out for Australia by both the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, so acquiring a fleet of nuclear-powered subs would not and should not raise suspicions by others in the Asia-Pacific about our non-nuclear weapons stance.”

 

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