And without Australia’s Pine Gap, the CIA would be utterly screwed. Leave the Ugly American schtick to the Left. Australia’s a fantastic country, the women are beautiful and friendly, the beer great. Take the time to read their Defense Ministry’s recent white paper on projected US influence in the Pacific region. They’re planning for a day when the US can’t meet it’s commitments.
And many Australians do speak Japanese, it’s a huge trading partner and holiday destination, particularly for Australian skiers. Both countries are small relative to China (which both view as the primary long term threat to their national interests), both have a historical distaste for immigration, and both have a well-educated, literate populace— far more so than the US, which should place its public school system under the Department of Agriculture because they are nothing but moron farms.
Here’s a couple of podcast links to an ABC-Radio National program called Countrerpoint:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2009/2545454.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2009/2539519.htm
It’s nice to hear an intelligent discussion of conservatism, instead of the heat sans light ratings generators that rip through the manic American populace.
> And without Australia’s Pine Gap, the CIA would be utterly screwed.
That’s absolutely right. There is also an ultra-secret spy station here in New Zealand at Waihopai.
I don’t like hearing the ugly American schtick at all, because to my experience Americans are fantastic people. Good friends and superb allies. WW-II was sixty-five years ago. Back then we were on the same side and our countries sent our bravest and best to fight our enemy, many of them died, and in the end our side won. On that subject little else matters.