US Deploying Thousands of Marines to Australia’s Northern Territory to Prepare For Possibility of War With China
Excerpt:
As tensions rise between the United States and China, thousands of American soldiers are being sent to Australia in preparation for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
A rotational US Marine force of approximately 2,200 soldiers will be based in the Northern Territory through September. 1,000 Marines have already arrived in Darwin, where they will train with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to ensure preparedness for potential conflict/crises in the region.
Colonel Marcus Constable, commander of the ADF’s northern force, has said that the Australia-US relationship is essential. “It is a key way we increase regional cooperation with partners in the Indo-Pacific,” said Colonel Constable. “Together we conduct a comprehensive range of training activities including humanitarian assistance, security operations, and high-end live-fire exercises.”
Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said that conflict with China “shouldn’t be discounted”, and warned that Beijing may try to use the current war between Russia and Ukraine to their advantage and try to annex Taiwan while the world is distracted.
Chinese state-affiliated media warned in 2021 that, should Australian forces defend Taiwan, they would suffer a “heavy attack”, a threat that Australian leaders have not taken lightly.
The Decomposition of Cuba’s Communist Regime
Martha Bueno’s organization, People 4 Cuba, smuggles food and medicine directly into the hands of suffering Cubans to help undermine an oppressive dictatorship.
https://reason.com/video/2022/03/16/the-decomposition-of-cubas-communist-regime/
Excerpt:
A massive protest movement broke out in Cuba on July 11, 2021. Food, medicine, and electricity shortages exacerbated by the COVID pandemic were pushing an already desperate, oppressed, and impoverished nation to the brink of rebellion.
Demonstrators used the internet—which has only been legally available in the country since 2018—to coordinate action in large and small cities across the island.
“Freedom…I felt free. I have never experienced in my life something so spectacular and wonderful. You had to have lived it to understand,” one Cuban citizen, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the Cuban government, told Reason.
In the face of widespread protests, the Cuban government arrested hundreds of protesters and shut down the internet.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel appeared on state TV to call for the violent suppression of the protests against “counter-revolutionaries.”
In Miami, members of the sizable Cuban-American community planned to load their own fishing boats with supplies to make the 90-mile journey to the island themselves but were deterred by the U.S. Coast Guard.
...”I think what people don’t understand is that the problem in Cuba stems from the fact that people can’t do anything for themselves,” says Martha Bueno, a Cuban-American activist. “You’re only allowed to make money if the government says it’s OK. And that’s how the government throttles people. They’ll throw you in jail if you decide to try and feed your family on your own.”
Bueno started the group People 4 Cuba following the protests. They assemble packages of dry foods and medical supplies and then pay people $35/pound to smuggle them onto the island. They’ve shipped more than 800 pounds so far, but she says it’s become more difficult in recent months as the Cuban government has cracked down harder on smuggled medical supplies.
“The big reason that we have to smuggle it into Cuba is because if I send it legitimately… the Cuban government will take that and then sell it in the stores,” says Bueno. “I wanted people to receive it, people who needed it to be able to receive it without paying. And I especially won’t help the Cuban government. I refuse to fund raise, pay for, and then give it to them so that they can sell it in the stores. I’m not that kind of girl.”
In one of her most popular tweets, Bueno, an outspoken libertarian, wrote this: “When my Father was 21 he was sentenced to 6 years in prison for attempting to leave his country (Cuba). A year into his sentence my fearless mother broke him out of jail. You might want to trade your freedom for safety, but I sure as hell don’t.”
Daniel Lugo, who helps Bueno with shipping logistics, came to America from Cuba 22 years ago. He says that even though the communist dictatorship has survived for 63 years, the courage and independence of Cuba’s youth give him hope that change is finally coming.
.....”Right now, no one believes in the Marxist ideology in Cuba, not even the people in the regime,” says Arcos. “They say they believe it. But they drive BMWs…They are practicing capitalism while they preach socialism or communism to the rest of the population. No one believes in [Marxism].”
.....”The regime is now engaged in pure naked repression…what they’re trying to do is trying to rebuild the terror, the state terror that Fidel Castro successfully built in the early 60s,” says Arcos.
The Cuban government blames the dire situation on the trade embargo the U.S. has on the country, which Bueno says is a scapegoat.
“It’s not the embargo that causes Cubans to face these problems. It’s the Cuban government that causes them to to face these problems. Cuba’s an island, and yet people are banned from fishing,” says Bueno.
.....”Every time they arrest a 16-year-old and sentence someone to 25 years in jail, they are creating entire final families and neighborhoods of opponents,” says Arcos. “They are feeding the opposition by increasing the repression.”