Sleepwalking to war?

Written by: (Contributed) on 8 November 2024

(Abandoned since 1946, and largely taken over by the jungle, US imperialism plans to re-commission the airfields from which they sent the planes to drop atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. Photo - news9live.com)

Dramatic increases in Australia's defence budgets planned for the next decade, are best assessed in the context of interoperability with US-led regional military planning; being an ally is not a cheap option.

US-led defence and security planning for Indo-Pacific region, likewise, has a direct bearing upon Australia's active participation as a major ally for 'US interests'.

The announcement that Canberra will be increasing defence budgets has revealed a heightened preparation for regional 'real-war scenarios':

TOTAL DEFENCE FUNDING

2024/25 - $55.7 billion
2026 - $58.4 billion
2027/28 - $67.4 billion
2034/35 - $100 billion (1)

The projections have been designed to enhance the position of the US-led military-industrial complex and Wall Street with their cohorts in the 'Defence State' of South Australia.

Australia, despite its geographical position, has been continually pushed higher up US military agendas for regional operations for 'US interests'. In fact, it has been openly acknowledged that 'Australia would still be a strategic backwater for the US if China had not developed such long-range offensive weapons capable of hitting Guam and other US bases in the region'. (2)

A high-level diplomatic statement from Michael McCaul, chair of the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, furthermore, stated 'Australia had become the central base for operations for America's military to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific'. (3) An official statement from Canberra, for example, included reference that 'Australia has gone from being the periphery in importance to the US to the essential core'. (4)

The moves have included large-scale US troop rotations through Australia and upgrades to military facilities for 'enhancing a ring of military bases spanning the coastline from Perth to Townsville to make them available to US forces in a conflict'. (5)

The moves rest on earlier sensitive US intelligence facilities based at Pine Gap in the 1970s;
control, and even accountability, by Australian governments was considered controversial by the Pentagon. It set the Whitlam administrations in Canberra on a well-publicised collision course with the White House and Pentagon which eventually led to the sacking of Whitlam by the Governor-General. (6)

The later publication of a top-secret telex revealed just how fraught the diplomatic relations between the US and Australia had become during the period: three points emerged; the CIA was bypassing the Australian government, they had deceived Canberra and were threatening to break diplomatic relations. (7)

The controversy still continues to the present day; it has never been resolved. Later studies of the Pine Gap facilities have concluded with the point that they provide 'a vital contribution to the US war-fighting mission … and they integrate … Australia into US war-fighting machinery'. (8)

Hidden within the recent defence budgets lie references to interoperability with Australian-based equipment and facilities being compatible with US-led models. It is not difficult to find examples in numerous defence publication in the public domain. (9) The Pentagon, furthermore, remains preoccupied with retaining their control over that of their allies; political leaders in Canberra and provincial states have willing accepted the 'deal', reducing Australia to a regional sub-imperial power for 'US interests'. (10) References in a recent Australian military publication actually referred to the Western Pacific, a vast area many thousands of kms from Australia and composed of numerous 'independent' countries as recognised by the United Nations, as 'our front yard'. (11) So much for their sovereignty.

The continued failure of the Pentagon to cede control of equipment and facilities based in Australia has, however, raised serious questions about our sovereignty. Statements issued by the Pentagon, therefore, about 'pooling of sovereignty … and … increasing enmeshing of the military forces of both countries' are best viewed as political spin, devoid of meaningful content and designed to deflect public opinion and controversy. (12)

Moves by the US to re-establish sensitive military facilities on Tinian (15 degrees north, 145 degrees east), a remote Pacific Island in the Northern Marianas, have revealed just how close Australia has been drawn into US-led planning for 'real-war scenarios'. It would appear not coincidental that Tinian is strategically and centrally placed within the boundaries of the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy which is defined by the linking of intelligence facilities at Pine Gap with counterparts in India, Japan and on the west coast of the US. (13)

With the bare minimum of publicity, the US has begun moves to create a major military hub on Tinian, which was abandoned in 1946 following its landing strips being used by the USAF for bombing Japan at the end of the Second World War. The 39 square mile island, with three thousand population who are US citizens, has been officially earmarked to 'become an extensive facility'. (14) With a budget of US$78 million, the USAF are seeking to transform Tinian as part of a network of 'smaller, dispersed locations … to … provide more options for joint force commanders' with larger airbases such as nearby Guam being assessed as susceptible to attacks; the proposed Tinian facilities can be regarded as a Pentagon-planned fall-back position in time of war. (15)

Other details about the Tinian planning reveal a great deal about the mindset of those who lurk inside the corridors of power inside the Pentagon, and their planning. The extensive US$409 million jungle clearance contract was awarded to Texas-based Fluor, which has historically been closely associated with oil and gas exploration; the area of the Pacific is regarded as rich in natural resources. (16)

Secondly, Tinian rests on the same arc which swings from Diego Garcia to Guam from Pine Gap in Central Australia. (17) Both remote US intelligence facilities have been upgraded in recent decades to become hubs for military operations, with Darwin Harbour as a support centre.

No doubt, somewhere in the recent $7 billion allocated by Canberra for use over the next decade to 'revolutionise its air and missile defence systems under a new agreement with the US … for … strengthening deterrence in the Indo-Pacific', recent US-led developments in Tinian will be taken into account. (18)

We need an independent foreign policy!

1. Defence's big budget boost, The Financial Review, 14 May 2024.
2. See: US forces get the nod to help contain China, The Weekend Australian, 14-15 September 2024.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. See: The Secret State, Richard Hall, (Australia, 1978), page 144, 146, 169, 173, pp. 176-77, pp. 184-86, page 202.
7. See: The CIA's Australian Connection, Denis Freney, (Sydney, 1977), Chapter 6, The CIA and the Kerr coup, pp. 26-31.
8. Sub-Imperial Power, Clinton Fernandes, (Melbourne, 2002), page 43.
9. See: Indian Ocean Defence and Security, Special Report, Australian, 24 July 2024; and, Land Forces 2024, Special Report, Australian, 11 September 2024.
10. See: Sub-Imperial Power, op.cit., Clinton Fernandes.
11. AUKUS nuclear submarines will also be a game-changer for the army, Land Forces 2024, Special Report, Australian, 11 September 2024.
12. Weekend Australian, op.cit., 14-15 September 2024.
13. See: Diagram, US Indo-Pacific Strategy, The Reasons behind Washington's push for GSOMIA., Hankyoreh, 12 November 2019.
14. US Air Force to reclaim Pacific airfield, CNN., 21 December 2023; and, US Air Force scatters to survive, Australian, 22 October 2024.
15. Ibid.
16. US Air Force issues $409 m award, Asia-Pacific, 11 April 2024.
17. See: Peters Projection, World Map, Actual Size.
18. $7 bn deal to bolster missile, air defence, Australian, 23 October 2024.