Australia - 'slavish' supporting the US?

Walter, If you have not noticed the British Empire is back, under a new cover. The United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand cooperate most of the time and when the do so they can do just about what they please.

New Zealand doesn't!!!!


Yes, I think Malcolm (who has turned from an extremely divisive Prime Minister into an elder statesperson, and is a thorn in the side of his political heirs - they must wish him dead with great fervour) is quite right - and so do many Australians.

dlowan

I'd no doubts about you :wink:

God help us, he's right!
Our prime minister seems to be totally besotted with George W & Co, to an alarming extent.
This scares me witless!

I would first note that, as Our Dear Bunny noted about New Zealand, Canada does not slavishly follow US dictates; i cannot accept Acquiunk's "British Empire" thesis.

What would disturb me, were i an Oztralian, is the lack of the ability to restrain the government, once in office. Here, the joker is obliged to seek congressional approval for such a venture--to our everalasting shame, the Shrub got it. He's not likely, however to pull that off again. Certainly, in representative democracies, the bastards can be made to pay at the polls; if the public is ill-informed or apathetic, they get away with it, otherwise they pay--but they pay down the road. I'd be interested to know what our most southern friends think about that.

Hmmmmmm - 'twas debated in parliament and such - but it seems he can commit troops, yes.

Actually, I do not, upon reflection, think Howard is "poodleish" (an insult if ever there was one! Poodles be fine dogs!) - I think he genuinely believes, after much thinking, that our interests lie with yours, almost always. Not ABSOLUTELY always.

I am thinking that he believes in putting our muscle where his mouth is - which is not unreasonable - I just do not like where his mouth is.

hehehe.....I don't like where his mouth is either. Or anything else of his. He's a little turd following a big turd.

Wilso, nice to have you re-emerged on the scene :wink:

Wilso, i hope your studies go well. In the turd analogy--who is whom?

Wilso

And I do hope that not only your studies, but you are going well, too

Acquiunk
Scratch Canada

And bluddy New Zealand, goddammit!

The United States and British intelligence services have two joint programs called Raptor and Carnivora which consist of a network of large dish antenna that can listen in on all electronic traffic, communication and otherwise world wide. The computer capabilities do not allow them to listen to every cell phone call so they scan the calls looking for key words and phrase and those that have them are given close attention. The major listening post for the southern hemisphere are in Australia and New Zealand. This is just one example. Much of the cooperation is on a level that we are not aware of on a day to day basis, and it does not necessarily involve send troops to some far off conflict. Much of it involves intelligence, economic policy, international policy, intellectual and student exchange and the like. In my own field of anthropology scholars move effortlessly between those five counties. Everyone else has to take a number. The way this system is configured does not prevent very public disagreements over a particular issue, it is the underlying network of cooperation that is important. You are looking in the wrong places.

tell us more.

The American intelligence posts have long been a bone of contention - their operations a secret here, long after FOI made them less mysterious in the USA.

One also might note that such activities are "extra-legislative," it would not be fair to characterize that as evidence of any kind of imperial link.

Australia - slavish supporting the U.S.
Took this from the Bergen Record (NJ), 14 July 2003:



Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a letter made public Saturday that while the CIA had expressed concerns to Britain about the Africa charge, it did not specify what they were. He said British intelligence officials were confident of their information and decided to publish it in a dossier about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction despite their ally's reservations.

Straw's letter indicated that Britain and the United States failed or declined to communicate fully about intelligence relating to the claim. Britain did not know until recently that the CIA had sent an envoy to Niger who investigated the uranium charge and discounted it, Straw added.[1}


Britain did not know until recently about the envoy to Niger to investigate the claim? These people don't know where to run next. We got our information from the Brits, who didn't know anything? Bu they didn't know what we knew? Who knew what?

Well, the British government is really strongly attacked:

Straw accused of 'new deception'

They're all lying scum. Big surprise.