Free Republic

My dad was one of 32,000 Australians who served under General Douglas MacArthur in WW2's last major battle on the coast of Balikpapan in 1945. I feel in me from my father a faith that the innate systemic goodness of most human beings can defeat the evil which sometimes corrupts this world. After fleeing the Phillipines, General MacArthur took the essential human yearnings for discipline and peace and channeled them for victories from this date, March 20 in 1942 (when he was recorded making his iconic “I shall return.” promise in Aussie outback trainstop town Terowie) till Japanese imperialism was...

The people's Republic of China is on the move: they have come a long way south into the China Sea and into the Solomon Islands. From the Australian point of view a crucial nation in between Australia and cashed-up, capitalised, Communist China is Indonesia, the fourth largest nation in the world. I think positive connections with Indonesia make Australia safer from China.