Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Pivotal Review

If Australia wants to take the role of the pivot point to help America project power between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Australia needs to build a new military and develop a new military posture that pushes Australia's forward defenses to the north and west of the continent rather than relying on the continent to shield the core in the southeast:

A military assets placement review will align the nation even more closely with the US in any future conflict with China. The Defence Force Posture Review is the first of its kind in more than 25 years and will move Australia on from WWII-era Brisbane line thinking that treated Townsville, Cairns, Perth and Darwin as 'secondary defence areas'.

Of course, we need to remain strong enough for Australia to have confidence that sticking their necks out to the north and west won't get them chopped up by the Chinese if we don't stand with the Australians if the balloon goes up.