Little surprised the Indos didn't sign up with China. The relationship between China and Indonesia has been getting stronger in recent years. Australia will just do what ever the US tells them to do. We are to the US what Igor was to Dr Frankenstein
when two choices to be presented to the Indos in the future, one with austerities and the other is super cheap. then it would be very easy to make and they do not even have to provide reason what so ever.
Well he WOULD say that wouldn't he? 'Stick with the USD, these Chinese could really stuff up our scheme.' Scum.
Part of the price to pay for having the US as an ally. Would we be better or worse off if we didn't have them as an ally? :/
I think there is a law of diminishing returns. The Vichy French possibly thought they were better off having Germany as an ally, and for a while they were, but eventually that didn't work out for them. We were/are supposedly allies of England but that didn't help out Darwin much after Singapore, and it's highly likely that if the Japanese had left Pearl Harbour alone, then Australia would be a Japanese quarry now. Personally I see USA as a rogue nation, responsible for most of the state terrorism in the world. I also see that in the past they were the best ally to have in the face of the perils facing a tiny country like Australia. We're an island and without having our own world class navy we're at the call of whichever superpower has the biggest boats - currently USA, but the USA has always shown that its allies are completely expendable and parochial political concerns trump any 'world policeman' role, the type of role that Australia relies upon and for which it has granted concessions since WW11. I think that Howard made a grave error in resiling from the "Asian Australia" position that Hawke and Keating promoted, and Rudd/Gillard did such a shoddy job the nails were driven home in that initiative. Abbott is not competent enough and is ideologically unable to take the steps required to establish Australia as a meaningful partner or participant in ASEAN nor to establish the rapport that Keating had with Indonesia's government. Howard's wedge politics with Hanson managed to convey Australia as a racist white country and that was a great shame. The ongoing 'boats' issue is another mark against Australia as a meaningful partner in Asia's future. End result: we need a country with big boats and big guns and we'll have to stomach being the kicked cur whenever it's convenient for our protector. But if the world's power structure IS changing, and if USA once again becomes the inward looking nation it has previously been ("the Kaiser is Europe's problem, Hitler is Europe's problem, Japan is Asia's problem"), in the face of new accords between Russia, China and SE Asia, then Australia should be making itself as many friends as possible in the Asian theatre; not bugging phones, killing live cattle exports, pushing back boats and playing Little Sir Echo on every imperialist terror charge the USA makes.
