19 Mar 2023 6:36 p.m
By Caitlin Johnstone
As part of the Australian media’s relentless onslaught of “war with China” propaganda, the state-run Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) a radio report about new revealed Details of the nuclear submarine deal aired within AUKUS, with two studio guests as deal supporters, moderated by another ardent deal supporter. One of the guests, Australia’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Ambassador to the United States, Joe Hockey, made some interesting comments.
“This agreement chains us to the United States for decades to come. Is there a danger that as junior partners in this agreement we will have to do what the US tells us to do in future war operations?”,
asked presenter Patricia Karvelas. hockey replied:
“Well, we’re already fully integrated into the US military, and have been for well over a hundred years. We’re the only country in the world that has fought side-by-side with the US in every major battle over the past hundred years. And already today, much of our Navy has the Aegis Combat System, an American system in service.Our current Collins-class submarines use American torpedoes and have them in every important aspect, be it communication systems or integration We already have American technology deployed and already integrated into American systems, so there’s nothing new here in that respect.”
That’s true. Australia is inextricably linked to the US military and is in fact nothing more than another US military and intelligence asset, to such an extent that the US Navy is reportedly planning to use Australia as an outpost with a fully-fledged submarine base for the full range of underwater activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
In an incredibly brazen acknowledgment that the Australian government has ceded the nation’s sovereignty entirely to a foreign power, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Secretary Richard Marles said last year that Australia’s armed forces have “moved well beyond interoperability, towards full integration with the U.S. military” so they can “work together seamlessly and efficiently.”
When asked about the hundreds of billions of dollars this submarine program will cost Australians, Hockey replied that “the cost of failure would be far greater than the cost of these investments”. He named Australia’s ports and shipping lanes that could be attacked without the deterrent factor of the new submarines.
This claim is humbug. As in the Australian TV series “Utopia” humorous shown China is said to be the foreign power to be prevented from attacking Australia’s ports and shipping lanes. But since China is Australia’s largest trading partner means we are effectively pouring out hundreds of billions of dollars to protect our trade with China from China.
In reality, Australia is not arming itself against China to protect itself from China. Australia arms against China to protect itself from the United States. This dynamic was captured in all its grotesque glory by a presentation by US policy analyst John Mearsheimer in 2019 at the Australian think tank Center for Independent Studies. In his usual uncomfortable and blunt manner, Mearsheimer told his audience that the US will do whatever it takes to stem China’s rise and prevent it from becoming the dominant power in the region. Australia will have to ally itself with the US in this fight, otherwise it will face the wrath of Washington.
“The question on the table is what should Australia’s foreign policy look like in the face of China’s rise”Mearsheimer continued. “I’ll tell you what I would suggest if I were Australian.”
Mearsheimer noted that China will continue to grow economically and convert that economic power into military power to dominate Asia “just as the US dominates the Western Hemisphere”. He explained why he believes the US and its allies have every opportunity to prevent this event:
“So the question is, what does all this mean for Australia. Well, you sure are in a quandary. Everyone knows what a dilemma that is. By the way, Australia is not the only country in East Asia that is in this quandary “These countries trade enormously with China, and that trade is very important to their prosperity, no question. In terms of security, you actually want to go with the US. It just makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it? And you understand that security is more important than prosperity, because if you don’t survive, you won’t be able to prosper.(…) Now some people are saying there is an alternative: you can go with China instead of with the US There are two things that I would like to say to you about this. First, if you go with China, you should understand that you are then the enemy of the United States. You then decide to become an enemy of the United States. Again, we are talking about an intense competitive struggle here time at regional security. Either you are with the US or you are against the US. And trading extensively with China and being friendly with China undermines the United States in this intense regional security contest. From the US perspective, you feed the beast. And the will not make the US happy. And when the US isn’t happy, don’t underestimate how evil the US can be. Just ask Fidel Castro.”
Nervous laughter from the audience punctuated Mearsheimer’s inflammatory observations. It is known that the CIA made numerous attempts to assassinate Castro.
So if you’re confused as to why Australia is preparing to wage an unwinnable war against its key trading partner in direct conflict with its own security and economic interests, then that is why. It’s because Australia ultimately fears the US more than China.
Contrary to Joe Hockey’s claims, Australia is paying hundreds of billions of dollars to integrate itself even further into the US war machine because “the cost of failure would be far greater than the cost of these investments”. In truth, these hundreds of billions of dollars are more like paying protection money to the mafia: we give the boss his cut so he doesn’t ruin our businesses and bust our kneecaps.
Nobody talks about it, although anyone who studies US foreign policy knows that’s exactly how it is. Australian propagandists are always making up stories about what China could do to us if we don’t play along with Washington’s aggressiveness against Beijing. But they never talk about what the US would do to us if we didn’t play along. That’s because they don’t want us to think too much about how we are being forced by the most powerful government in the world to prepare for a war of unimaginable horrors, under the tacit threat of inflicting even worse horrors on ourselves if we do refuse.
In the escalating conflict between China and the US, Australia finds itself in a bind. The US is responsible for mounting hostilities between China and the Western power alliance in its desperate bid to secure unipolar hegemony. The US is responsible for fomenting fear in other countries that know what their fate might be if they disobey Washington’s dictates. The US is responsible for creating a situation in which we are forced to choose between throwing our sons and daughters into the gears of an unimaginably horrific war while at the same time wrecking our economy and risking nuclear Armageddon, or ourselves subject to revenge and retaliation from a government far more violent and destructive than China.
This totally intolerable situation is why Australians are being aggressively bombarded with war propaganda about China right now. If we were allowed to obtain truthful information and think normal thoughts, no sane person would ever agree to any of this.
But here we are, and it won’t get any better until people understand what’s happening. We need to talk about it and we need to help everyone understand the reality of the situation we are in now. Until they free themselves from the shackles of the US empire, humanity will not stand a chance in the end.
Translated from the English.
Caitlin Johnstone is an independent journalist based in Melbourne, Australia. your website can be found here and you can follow her on twitter below @caitoz consequences.
more on the subject – The military-strategic dynamics of the new Cold War in the Asia-Pacific region
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