For Independence
and peace, the US grip on Australia must be broken
By Bevan Ramsden
AUSMIN 2023 has further surrendered sovereignty and
tightened the US military grip on Australia. The integration of the ADF with
the US military, insertion of US intelligence staff in our defence
intelligence organisation and the increased military
presence of the US including command facilities in Australia has locked us into
any war plans of the United States and made us a launching pad for their wars.
The US grip on Australia must be broken to give us independence and a peaceful
future.
The AUSMIN 2023 talks between the Australian Defence and Foreign Affairs ministers, Richard Marles and
Penny Wong and their US counterparts Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, have further tightened the
US military grip on Australia.
Australia has become the US southern Indo-Pacific base
from which it will launch military operations. Under the US Force Posture
Agreement the US has established, or is in the process of establishing, huge
fuel, munitions, spare parts, maintenance and equipment storage facilities on
our continent. It has also been given unimpeded access to our airports, seaports,
RAAF, RAN and Army bases for its military aircraft, warships and nuclear
submarines. Sovereignty has been cravenly sacrificed on the altar of the US-Australia
military alliance.
These Australian facilities are being massively upgraded
largely at Australian taxpayers expense to support these US military
operations.
The ADF trains extensively with, and is under the
command of, the US military in war exercises such as Talisman Sabre. The ADF is
now so integrated with the US military and our foreign policy so tied to that
of the US that Australia will be swept into the next US war without a whimper
from our political leaders and indeed with their enthusiastic support. That the
next US war will be against China, Australia’s major trading partner and that
such a war will have a catastrophic impact on every aspect of the Australian people’s lives and those of
the people in our region and the world, with the dreadful possibility of a
nuclear exchange, apparently has not registered with our leaders.
By agreeing to the outcomes of the AUSMIN 2023 talks, Richard
Marles and Penny Wong have shown that they are no more than flunkeys, willing
to place the interests of the US above those of the Australian people. They have
accepted measures which effectively increase the US grip on Australia and
infringe our national sovereignty in a most fundamental way, by denying us the
ability to decide if, when and against whom we go to war.
Let’s review the decisions reached at AUSMIN 2023.
AUSMIN 2023 re-affirmed a joint commitment to
operationalise the Alliance including through enhanced Force Posture
Cooperation across land, maritime and air domains as well as through the
Combined Logistics, Sustainment and Maritime Enterprise. They declared Enhanced
Space Cooperation as a new Force Posture Initiative to enable closer
cooperation on this critical operational domain.
There will be a fresh expansion of the deployment of U.S. forces to Australia
including amphibious troops and maritime reconnaissance planes.
American intelligence analysts will be embedded within the Defence’s spy agency
in Canberra establishing a Combined Intelligence Centre- Australia within
Australia’s Defence Intelligence Organisation by 2024.
In addition to upgrading RAAF Tindal and Darwin there will be expansion and
“hardening” against attacks of two other RAAF bases in the north, RAAF Scherger
near Weipa in Qld and RAAF Curtin near Derby in WA.
This upgrading will service aircraft used by both
Australia and the US including the F-35 Lightning, Super Hornet fighters and
C-17 cargo planes. On November 1st 2022 the ABC ‘Four Corners’
program revealed that RAAF Tindal will be upgraded to accommodate up to six nuclear-capable
B52 bombers, and on August 4th 2023 it disclosed that a search of US
budget filings had revealed plans to build a US Air Force Mission Planning and
Operations Centre in Darwin, plans which have never been fully disclosed by the
Australian Government. Through Enhanced Maritime Cooperation there will be more
and longer visits of US nuclear submarines to HMAS Stirling in WA from 2023.
These visits are in preparation for Submarine Rotational Force-West involving
UK and US nuclear submarines being berthed and serviced under the AUKUS
Agreement.
The Americans will now conduct a “regular rotation” of U.S. army watercraft as
well as deploying a US Navy spy plane to conduct surveillance flights.
The US announced its intention to pre-position
US Army stores and materiel at Bandiana Army base near Wodonga in Victoria as a
precursor for longer term establishment of an enduring Logistics Support Area
in Queensland designed to enhance interoperability and accelerate the ability
to respond to alleged ‘regional crises’ which are in reality US-perceived
threats to its hegemony.
The US will collaborate with Australia in the
local production of multiple- launch guided missiles, planned to commence by 2025.
We are in the grip of the US military, which
is ever-tightening and underpins US control of our economy. We are indebted to the
historian Clinton Fernandes for his analysis showing that of Australia’s twenty
largest corporations, 15 are majority US owned. This includes BHP Billiton,
once called the “Big Australian” but now 73% US owned and therefore beholden to
US shareholders. The four major banks, NAB, ANZ, Westpac and the CBA, once the
government- owned peoples’ bank, are all majority owned by US shareholders, a
form of ‘foreign influence’ that the Government doesn’t seem to have a problem
with.
The huge public expenditure on “defence”, such
as the $368 billion for nuclear-powered submarines, $10 billion for Hercules cargo
aircraft, $10 billion for armoured vehicles, billions for runway extensions and
port upgrades – the list goes on and is at the expense of addressing urgent
social needs such as urgent measures to deal with climate change and address
the serious crisis in public housing, health care and public education. There
is no military threat to Australia. The real beneficiary is the US military-industrial
complex which has its presence in Australia through Lockheed Martin, Boeing and
other corporations.
If we are to have an independent and hope of
a peaceful future, the US grip on our country must be broken. There can be no
social or economic justice, no real solution to the ever-worsening crises in housing,
public health care, public education, care of children and the aged, and no
effective measures to address climate change and no peaceful future until we
free ourselves from the grip of the US militarily, politically and economically.
In order to free ourselves we must unite and
we can, because increasing numbers of Australians from different walks of life
and political persuasions are becoming alarmed at the suicidal direction the present
Australian political leadership is taking us. We are many and are powerful when
we are united, while the US collaborators and those who profit from US
domination are few. We need political leaders who will serve the interests of
the Australian people rather than those of the US or any other foreign power. We
need a new constitution, one which will respect the people who first walked
this land, will forbid the presence of ALL foreign bases and foreign troops on
our soil and will give emphasis to the promotion of peace and mutually
beneficial relations with all countries.
Only independence can give us back our sovereignty
and self-respect and the possibility of a peaceful future.
Bevan Ramsden is a former telecommunications
engineer and TAFE teacher and a
long-time peace activist. He advocates for Australia’s independence. He is a
former member of the coordinating committee of the Independent and Peaceful
Australia Network) IPAN) and editor of its monthly e-publication, Voice.