With the appointment of Admiral Harry Harris, Pacific Commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific, as the new US ambassador to Australia, the Trump administration has in place the main link in its chain of command for overseeing Australia’s role in a planned Asia-Pacific conflict.
The Harris appointment came as PM Malcolm Turnbull last week concluded talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, officially signing off on the deployment of Japanese military forces in Australia’s north, joining the growing US military presence in the top end.
Australia’s intended role is as a platform for land and air attacks and provision of facilities for the planned joint naval offensive, a scenario constantly rehearsed in war games and the development of the inter-operability of the US-Australian militaries. This strategy is integral to the role of the US bases on Australian soil, in particular the Pine Gap spy base.
Preparations are underway for Australia’s part in a predatory, imperialist war fought on behalf of the transnational corporations challenged by Asia’s – in the first place China’s –emergence as an economic powerhouse.
Domestically, the means have been put in place to silence voices of dissent, including the introduction of laws to jail journalists who may be caught up in a net of legislation open to wide interpretation and based on the assumption of guilt for simply doing their job.
The word “treason” now accompanies laws threatening to de-fund advocacy groups critical of government policies or in receipt of monies deemed to be “foreign influence”.
War rhetoric
In terms of propaganda, it is instructive to note some of the contradiction in the war rhetoric coming from the US and its various lap dogs, including the Turnbull government.
The government is now labeling a growing number of things deemed “foreign” to be by definition “suspicious”, first and foremost things Chinese. This, even as last November’s foreign policy white paper noted with almost salivating anticipation that China’s domestic purchasing power alone is set to grow to $21 trillion by 2030.
At the same time the Communist Party of China’s “sinister” influence has supposedly spread to universities around the country. Foreign students are Australia’s third biggest export earner, including almost 132,000 Chinese citizens studying at more than 30 Australian universities.
The white paper also attacked China’s rightful land reclamations in the South China Sea, saying it is in contravention of international law, while hailing the US as “founder and chief defender” of the “rules-based order”, in spite of the US not even having ratified the maritime law it insists China is breaking.
The government of the US is now an open and unambiguous dictatorship of money with, as its crowning achievement, a billionaire property developer. Those elements of the ruling class which support Trump and ensured his enthronement in the Oval Office have set the US on the path of the most reactionary and militaristic elements of monopoly capital toward war and destruction, no less than nuclear conflagration.
A few facts
The US refusal to accept the legitimacy of the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is part of a long-term policy – that any state in the world that follows an independent course is subject to being overthrown by the US. The DPRK, Vietnam, Cuba, the USSR (and now Russia), Syria, Venezuela, China … have all been targeted by the US politically and militarily.
In terms of the region, the notion that DPRK poses a threat to the US and international security and peace, is false to the point of absurdity.
CONCLUSION (for your enhancement)
- The danger is clear and present
- Peace movement splintered
- Need for union involvement
- The urgent need to build broad united movement against war, for peace.
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