May 2: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, right, announces the government's defense white paper in Sydney, Australia.
Posted on 05/02/2009 3:30:29 AM PDT by JoeProBono
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia plans to buy 100 state-of-the-art U.S. jet fighters and double the size of its modest submarine fleet in a bid to keep pace with an Asian military buildup. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, announcing the plan on board the HMAS Stuart in Sydney Harbour on Saturday, said Australia's military must be prepared for any situation. "It's important for our own capability requirements ... for the Australian Defense Force to be prepared to meet a range of contingencies arising from military and naval buildups across our region," Rudd said. "That is prudent, long-term defense planning, and we believe we've got the balance absolutely right."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
May 2: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, right, announces the government's defense white paper in Sydney, Australia.
The Mandarin-speaking panda hugger Rudd (aka Lu Kewen) is doing some serious smoke and mirrors. How so? This “plan” comes without defense spending increases. His predecessor John Howard increased spending 3% annually like clockwork for a decade.
Guess this will be Zeros cue to insult them and send them somd DVDs. Then lecture Australia that they musn’t appear arrogant or militaristic towards its islamic neighbors. He’ll insult one of our best allies and thus be forced to buy outdated Euro crap because Obama is massacring programs like the F22 and F35.
When they ask if any american built naval vessels are available for sale, President Enchanted will tell them the same thing.
I would agree. The Aussies are in for a turbulent ride in the next decade due to the emergence of China and India. A dozen Destroyers and a dozen non-nuclear Submarines is a joke. The country is an island for crying out loud. They should have a wooden wall mentality that would require more than what is being proposed. Plus as good as the F-35 appears to be, it is not a long range Interceptor. The new revamped F-15 would be better, leaving the F/A-35 for internal invasion repealing duty. Also cutting the small Aircraft Carriers is a mistake as well. Especially if they are serious about foreign deployments.
Also for a country with a small population compared to it’s neighbors, they really should be implementing a mandatory two year service for all 18 year old males. After that an eight year mandatory active reserve, followed by a twelve year inactive reserve. That is the only way they will have enough trained manpower if they had to go to war with either China, India, or Indonesia.
Plus they need tight military alliances outside of the US.
We should have spent our stimulus money to buy more military hardware.
We’re not about to go to war with a neighboring nation.... and certainly not with China or India. Why would we?
Indonesia might be a bit recalcitrant but they don’t pose a military threat.
India would never go to war with Australia. Imperfect as India may be, it is a genuine democracy and hence the goverment and the populace of that country is not prone to wars. They have a healthy checks and balances system.
There was a famous saying about how two democracies dont go to war with each other. While this has not always been true, it basically summarizes the fact that in an open democracy it is very hard to declare war without being attacked first.
“We’re not about to go to war with a neighboring nation.... and certainly not with China or India. Why would we?
Indonesia might be a bit recalcitrant but they don’t pose a military threat.”
I didn’t say you were, nor does waging war mean you started it. Peace and alliances come and go, which is why a nation should always be ready.
Well, they can’t depend on the U.S. anymore.
What they should be doing is hiring our veterans away from our military at the end of their terms of service. They would get a double whamy with excellently trained troops and some of the newly employed would have children while there, making them Australian citizens.
“After that an eight year mandatory active reserve, followed by a twelve year inactive reserve.”
And I believe they should allow those reservists to keep their personnel weapons and a combat load of ammunition at home.
I tried but they would not sell me that MaDeuce I wanted really, really bad.
Australia is a continent.
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