Contributed by Ben Wilson
Just as the world is starting to breath a small sigh of relief over the Korea issue, US president Donald Trump decides to once again in a bout of threats and actions guaranteed to raise tensions once again. Obeying the tug of the leash, the Australia government fell in behind.
Leading politicians have not only echoed his masters’ voice. They have committed a second fleet of Australian ships to the effort. HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Parramatta are scheduled to make port visits as part of week long military exercises of the Korean coast.
There is a great carry on about north Korean missiles. What the Australian public is not told is that north Korea has been offering to decommission its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal, if there is an end to threats and military buildup near its borders.
By failing to seize the opportunity, the United States and its allies are deliberately engineering hostility and this is pushing north Koreas into an arms race. The validity of the extent of the response to the provocations is a matter of argument. But this should not get in the way of realising that the Korean region needs to be demilitarised.
Trump’s latest stunt, undermining his own Secretary of State, when he was in Beijing brokering a path of dialogue to resolve the matter has not helped one little bit.
Seeing Australia’s Defence Minister Julie Bishop publicly defend this, is not only an embarrassment, but an affront to any notion of decency. It is a disgrace.
What this shows is that it is about time the political leadership in Australia grew up and figured out how to think for themselves. We need to mature as a nation and not seek to be no more than a parody of someone else. Australia needs to stand independently in the family of nations.
For as long as this is not happening, Australia continues to play a sorry role in making the world a more dangerous place, when we should be promoting the resolution of differences by talking, instead of through guns.
To stop tasking past in threatening war games would be a good start.
North Korea with continue to arm itself more even if military build up is removed. Has it not been the cased when the weakened previous administrations under Obama did shit all against North Korea and they built themselves up to the current problem today. Now is not a time to show weakness against DPRK. It is a time to show DPRK and it’s allies the unity of ANZUS to support our Asian allies of South Korea and Japan against a looming threat in that region. It is also important to send strong message at once to China that despite our economic ties to them, that if shit does hit the fan and China aggressive expansion around the region oversteps it’s bound that there is a united front against them.