Testifying to the Defence Select Committee last week, Air Marshal Short said Australia was “reshaping” its Defence Force for “a singular threat from a singular direction.” This was described as being an oblique reference to China.
AM Short went on to say:
“They are putting a huge amount of effort into that and they are making decisions every day about how they will equip their force and where they will compromise and put money somewhere else. So to put money into longer range, more accurate weapon systems they are making sure that their ships have those systems fitted.
In other short range or defensive systems … they’re saying ‘no, that’s a lower priority, we won’t do it’. So they’re shifting their priority.”
For longer range, more accurate systems read AUKUS and offensive capability, aimed at China. Ever since the British debacle at Singapore in 1942, where the Australian Division was involved in the surrender, Australia has pinned its defence alliance to the United States. Where America goes, they go.
Th United States has has prescribed China as its principal strategic threat, and declared that it is engaged in active competition with it, sanctioning its IT systems in an attempt to knock its economy back. Its not working, even as the US is also currently engaged in supporting other wars, providing essential weaponry to Ukraine and Israel. That’s not working either, even as it causes innocents to suffer on a monumental scale.
To his credit, Air Marshal Short appears to have pushed back against the Australians:
New Zealand was instead trying to retain a “balanced force” built for a range of possibilities, not a singular threat, Short said.
He said the Australians understood that, but they also want to make sure that on their western flank there is a strong defence force, and we’re in discussions about what they mean by that.
We’d all like to know what they mean by that. We’ve got the Poseidons, and they could fly up and down the Tasman Sea to search for submarines, or out toward Fiji to head off any Chinese landing craft coming our way on the 60,000km invasion flotilla that some seem to be fearing.
The Aussies are shirt-fronting specialists, and good on the Air Marshal for standing up to them. But we should not be forced into being Australia’s backstop if they plan to join the United State aggressive containment war against China. China wants to focus on trade not war, and so should we.
And there are plenty of people in Australia with a different view. They are als good at recognising bullshit. As so often, the satirists are on the money:
The best way we can assist is to stay out of other peoples’ wars in AUKUS, see China as a trading partner not an enemy, and focus on civil defence for ourselves and in the Pacific.
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