US Forces “Get the Nod” – Whoever Wins Federal Election

 

Written by: Ned K. on 17 April 2022

This weekend’s "The Saturday Paper" has an interesting article by journalist Brian Toohey.

The article is about the United States- Australian satellite intelligence base at Pine Gap near Alice Springs. 

Toohey notes in the article the "growing importance of Pine Gap to the US." He refers to the "extraordinary growth" of the base. Initially it was a ground station for a single satellite to gather what's called signals intelligence while orbiting 36,000 kms above the Earth.

Now, according to Brian Toohey, there are at least four much more powerful satellites connected to the base.
 
"Their antennae automatically intercept everything transmitted within their frequency range. This includes a huge army of electronic signals for intelligence analysis, including text messages, emails, phone calls and much more. In addition, ground-based antennas at Pine Gap and other Australian sites intercept a vast volume of information transmitted via commercial satellites".

No wonder Whitlam got the boot in 1975. Just the mere mention about more control of the base by an Australian Government, far short of closure, was enough for US forces to do a job on Whitlam.

Now in 2022, according to the election campaigns of the main parliamentary parties, it is all the way with Biden as the danger Pine Gap presents to peace loving Australians is now far greater than in 1975. 

"Big brother is watching you" before and after the election - via Pine Gap and satellites all for the good of the US empire as it faces off with the rising imperial China from the East.

US set to review and expand its bases here

 

Written by: Nick G. on 17 February 2022

 Following on the heels of the recent Quad meeting in Melbourne, a senior US military overlord is set to review US bases in Australia.

Led by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s Director for Logistics and Engineering, Brigadier General Jered Helwig, a United States delegation will visit bases and facilities in Australia to progress the Australian-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) 2021 commitments. Indo-Pacific Command’s senior logistician will meet with key Australian Defence counterparts to discuss the establishment of cooperative logistics, sustainment, and maintenance enterprises.

Helwig’s agenda is clearly to expand the number, nature and scope of US bases on Australian soil.

Australian Brigadier Jason Walk, Acting Commander Joint Logistics Command, is sponsoring the delegation. He said, “Aligning Australian and US understanding of the Northern Australian environment and the Defence logistics enterprise capabilities is central to achieving an effective AUSMIN outcome. The visit will focus on logistics opportunities and challenges in our Northern Region, our networks and infrastructure, and interoperability enhancement.”

With the enthusiastic support of Defence Minister Dutton, a cheerleader for the US military presence in Australia and the region, and an undoubted agent of US interference in Australia, Helwig’s imperial tour of observation will no doubt feed into the 2022 AUSMIN meeting with new measures to strengthen the US military presence here.

This is completely unacceptable.

Meanwhile, Commander of US Army Pacific General Charles Flynn has flown to Canberra to lay out his plans for greater influence (“interoperability”) over his Australian counterparts.

Meeting with Australia's Army Chief, Lieutenant General Rick Burr, he strongly supported the Australian purchase, for $3.5 billion, of more than 120 tanks and other armoured vehicles from the US.

Australian defence experts have questioned the need for the tanks, noting that the current generation of Abrams tanks bought in 2007, had never been used in conflict, and that no Australian tanks had been used in fighting since the Vietnam War half a century ago.

Purchase ambulances, not tanks!

On social media, many Australians have asked why we need tanks at a time when the Government cannot supply rapid antigen tests, and we don’t have enough ambulances and paramedics to prevent crisis-level ramping outside hospitals.

Flynn defended the purchase of the tanks (whenever has a seller criticised the sale?), saying “particularly in dense urban areas, you're gonna want armour forces, you're gonna need tanks”.  So, whose “dense urban areas” are we talking about?

US imperialism is desperately trying to keep its options open for control of the Indo-Pacific region, anticipating not only nation-to-nation fighting, but suppression of civilian uprisings in dense urban areas. 

US imperialism cannot define our “enemies” for us, it cannot lead us into yet more unwinnable wars of aggression, as a result of which those of our armed services personnel not killed or wounded on the battlefield become scarred for life mentally and psychologically, with suicide and self-harm as an enduring legacy.

This is not where our interests lie.

We must widen the fight for anti-imperialist independence and socialism, kick out all US bases, and use diplomacy and negotiation to build positive relations based on mutual respect and understanding with our neighbours and the international community. 

Northern Territory pushed closer to real war scenario

Written by: (Contributed) on 5 June 2020

Residents of the Northern Territory should be in no doubt what the US-led wave of militarism across the Indo-Pacific means for their state and well-being. The NT is being pushed into a front-line position for real war scenarios across the region.

A recent report, from a senior Australian government official, has clarified just how close the country has been drawn into US-led regional military planning, with specific reference to the Northern Territory.

Developments, elsewhere, have also contributed to rising diplomatic tensions.

The Trump administration has announced the intention to revamp a major economic forum to deal with the global economy, with moves to specifically designed to contain and encircle China.

The report, from Shaun Drabsch, Chief Executive of the Department of Trade, Business and Innovation for the NT in a Defence Special Report supplement for the Australian in late May, provided a chilling glimpse of US-led military planning for the wider Indo-Pacific region. (1) There was little ambiguity about the Pentagon plan: the northern part of Australia, strategically-placed and facing toward the South China Seas, was ear-marked to become 'the defence and national forward operating base for Australia'. (2)

The main thrust of the report is about military superiority in the 2020-50 period, with the rise of China set to eclipse the US as the world's biggest economy within the next decade. It has been regarded as a threat to traditional US hegemonic positions across the region.

Written in a concise and factual style, the report provided a clear illustration of the massive military build-up planned by the US to maintain superiority in the face of having to deal with China as a competitor.

References are, therefore, provided of Australian Defence Force (ADF) 'investments in future war-fighting capabilities', which will include Joint Strike Fighter planes together with 72 F-35A Lighting II aircraft and MQ-4C Triton high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial systems and manned P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft. Other references to unmanned platforms include the Loyal Wingman drone system and the ORCA Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle.

The NT is already littered with numerous military facilities which include Pine Gap which is hosted by Australia for a massive US intelligence-gathering base linked to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. RAAF Darwin, likewise, has four surveillance and response units working in conjunction with four combat support units. It is no coincidence the base, 8 kms outside of Darwin, is also used for US troop rotations.

Other military facilities in the NT include four army bases, two further RAAF bases and a naval base. Each base tends to have specific responsibilities, in peacetime and for combat. The number of military facilities would now appear planned for expansion with reference in the report to the proposed Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative (IPDI) which would include additional US troops being rotated through Darwin.     

Reference was also made in the report to the 'prepositioning of equipment, increased missile defence capabilities and new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets', together with 'more and new training ranges'. (3)

The report also included reference to the new US-led regional telecommunications network linking the US with Guam, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and Darwin set to be operational in 2022. It is intended to provide the US with real-time communications for 'fast, secure, high-band-width data … a prerequisite for virtually all modern defence and intelligence platforms'. (4) Satellite communications have the problem of split-second transmission times which cause problems for military planners and remote control of combat in war-zones.  

The fact the new telecommunications network has been routed through Guam is not coincidental: the Micronesian landmass hosts numerous sensitive US facilities. It also rests upon an arc from Pine Gap to Diego Garcia which swings across the Indo-Pacific region. Both Guam and Diego Garcia have also been upgraded in recent years to act as military hubs, while Darwin Harbour in the Northern Territory has become a support centre for operations. The significance of Guam has also been established with the 2018 US-led Malabar military exercise which was held nearby and included Japan as a regional operation.

Whether the new telecommunications network is actually routed through any of the US military facilities has yet to be established. It would, however, be remarkable if the US intelligence services have overlooked such opportunities.

The US-led military and security considerations have been linked to economic initiatives; the Trump administration has the specific intention of containing and encircling China in the global economy.

The announcement that the Trump administration wants to expand the G7 group of advanced economies to include Australia was not solely confined to the so-called 'alliance' between the two countries. Other countries which are major players in the global economy including India and Brazil have also been included in the plan. (5) It follows a rationale that countries which play a dominant role in economic relations tend to trade with neighbouring countries and, therefore, develop workable diplomatic relations.

Australia, for example, has strong trade relations with the Indo-Pacific in general and the South Pacific specifically, India has maintained strong trading relations with the Asian sub-continent for decades while Brazil is a major player in Latin America due to its geographical size and huge manufacturing base. Both India and Brazil have also formed two of the five economic pillars of the massive BRICS regional trade organisation, which was regarded as a major player in emerging economies.

China, however, has not been included in the Trump economic initiative despite its relatively strong economic performance within the global economy. Diplomatic tensions and hostilities will be driven even higher across the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere, as competition increases between the US and China.

Australia, in general, is being drawn ever closer into potential real war scenarios with the Northern Territory, specifically, being pushed into a front-line position and becoming a potential war-zone.

 Australia needs an independent foreign policy!

***** 

1.     Hi-tech transformation into strategic operating Territory, Defence Special Report, The Weekend Australian, 30-31 May 2020.
2.     Ibid.
3.     Ibid.
4.     China sets out a snare for the worldwide web, The Weekend Australian, 16-17 May 2020.
5.     See: Morrison awaits call-up to G7, Australian, 1 June 2020; and, PM up for G7, Putin a step too far, Australian, 3 June 2020; and, Korea accepts Trump's G7 invite, Australian, 3 June 2020, which provides information about a US-led initiative to strengthen regional trade blocs and unify their operations to exclude China.

Close all US bases! Accept no more marines!

Written by: Nick G. on 31 March 2020

The federal government has temporarily cancelled plans for this year’s rotation of US marines through Darwin.

The cancellation was announced on March 30 and follows earlier advice on March 18 that the 2500 US marines would have to self-isolate for 14 days after arrival in Darwin.

The stronger response follows concerns that the US armed forces are proving very susceptible to Covid-19 through failure to properly respond to the crisis.

Covid-19 and the US armed forces

On March 25, the online US Military Times reported that there were 175 Covid-19 cases per million US troops compared to 135 per million US civilian population. On March 30, it reported that numbers had grown to to 438 per million compared to the general 375 per-million among the U.S. population.

The new coronavirus is starting to impact operations in the Indo-Pacific Command, as a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was sent to dock in Guam after more than 20 sailors aboard tested positive.  On 21 March there were three confirmed cases on board the carrier; two days later, there were 25 when it docked in Guam.  By March 28, there were 36.  The following day, it was announced that the USS Ronald Reagan, a second carrier based at Yokosuka Naval base in Japan, was also hosting a Covid-19 outbreak.

US Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, in a video to Airmen released March 26, said the outbreak is “a challenge we have not faced before.”

According to Task & Purpose, an online magazine for US service personnel, troops were reporting that the US military was not taking the Covid-19 outbreak seriously.  "This is a telling indicator of leadership failure," one Army officer told Task & Purpose on condition of anonymity.

The Department of Defense has given wide discretion to commanders in the advice they give their subordinates.

“I can’t put out a blanket policy, if you will, that we would then apply to everybody because every situation is different,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday in response to questioning about "inconsistencies" in DoD guidance on social distancing and travel restrictions being carried out at lower levels. “Tell me how I do six feet distancing in an attack submarine. Or how do I do that in a bomber with two pilots sitting side by side?”

Australia and the US imperialist armed forces

Given that the US military is something of a Coronavirus hot-spot, the decision to temporarily halt the latest rotation of 2500 marines through Darwin is absolutely necessary. It must also apply to any US personnel, civilian or military, at US bases like Pine Gap near Alice Springs, or involved in planned extensions at the Tindal Air Force base and the new port facility proposed for Glyde Point near Darwin.

The US also “shares” with Australia Kojarena, the Joint Military Communications Ground Station (JMCGS) located approximately 20 kilometres east north east of Geraldton, Western Australia. There are several Australian military infrastructures that Canberra makes available to the US including a naval base on the Cocos Islands and a certain number of training sites and shooting ranges scattered throughout the country (Bradshaw Field, Delamere, Mount Bundey, Shoalwater Bay, Townsville Field, Cowley Beach).

Other countries in our region could be forgiven for seeing the Australian continent as yet another US aircraft carrier.

Everyone of these bases is making Australia complicit in the desire of the US empire to maintain its domination over the Indo-Pacific. They reflect our subordination to the wishes of our US overlords. They demonstrate Australia’s domination by and dependency on US imperialism.

If Covid-19 has done us any good, it is the temporary halt to US marine rotations through Darwin.  However, those rotations will be resumed once the pandemic is brought under control.

For our part, we must not be kept under control.  We must continue to agitate and organise to oppose imperialism in Australia, and to demand an independent and peaceful foreign policy.

Close all US bases in Australia!

No more marine rotations in Australia!