Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited his counterpart in Oz with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in tow, happy to re-affirm the alliance between the US and Australia as enduringly important to both peoples despite the ebbs and flows of political fortunes on either side of the world:
Australia and the United States reaffirmed their strong alliance on Saturday, saying their security and defense partnership would not change with the election of Canberra’s new government and plans for a partial withdrawal from Iraq.
The foreign and defense ministers of both countries sought to play down differences over Iraq, while on Afghanistan both sides struck the same chord, calling on Europe to dedicate more resources to the fight.
“The alliance between Australia and the United States is fundamental to Australia’s defense, security and strategic arrangements,” Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters after the annual Australia-United States ministerial consultations.
“The alliance relationship transcends a Labor or Liberal government here, or a Democrat or Republican administration in the United States,” he said.
That’s strategically important in a vital part of the world. The tactical translation for the US Navy is much simpler – Perth visits for all my friends!
(You know, honestly? The worst part about pondering the transition to the civil side is the things you take for granted in the sea service, and which you will most likely never more see: The sun rising in Newton Circus in Singapore, and touching on the face of that Irish girl you’d danced with, not needing music. The hurley-burley, anything-could-happen chaos of a night in Kowloon or Tsim Sha Shui. The cobalt blue of the ocean, south of the line – found nowhere else in nature, and completely indescribable. And port visits to Perth.
Oh, there were a lot of empty ocean miles between those things, boredom, separation and Spartan hardship – worth every waking moment, the more of which you’ll have to enjoy if you remember that you can sleep when you are dead.)
Ahem.
Getting back on theme, here: Meanwhile, the Australian defense (defence?) minister told SecDef that “Raptor” may be Australian for “fighter.” Well, good on ‘ya, mates and I sure hope that you can afford them. It would keep that production line open for another year or so until we can get ourselves sorted out, and maybe a new run could drive down costs for all of us.
No reason to think there aren’t more beautiful places and faces to experience in the “afterlife”. And if you don’t like what you see, you can leave when you may. Or stay. It’s quite nice, actually.
As to “you can sleep when you’re dead”, that’s the line I use on tourists who balk at embarking on a ghost tour at 11:30 p.m.
But if the ghosts are sleeping, what’s the point of the tour?
But, hey, you can still pull port/starboard watches and *still* not get paid overtime… :p
-SJS
“The worst part about pondering the transition to the civil side is the things you take for granted in the sea service, and which you will most likely never more see: The sun rising in Newton Circus in Singapore, and touching on the face of that Irish girl you’d danced with, not needing music. The hurley-burley, anything-could-happen chaos of a night in Kowloon or Tsim Sha Shui. The cobalt blue of the ocean, south of the line – found nowhere else in nature, and completely indescribable. And port visits to Perth.”
Amen and Amen-although Kolwoon is not all it’s cracked up to be any more. Stick to Lan Kwai Fong or Wanchai.
I was listening to a story on NPR this morning about this.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19304227
They were breathlessly reporting that although most Australians will tell you that the election was focused on domestic issues, the war in Iraq was a big part of it. That many Australians attended anti-war rallies before the election and didn’t like Howard’s “cozy relationship” with Bush, blah, blah, blah.
So they got their big change.
What changed? Under John Howard, 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, 550 in Iraq. Under Rudd, 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, 300 in Iraq.
Smoke and mirrors.
The potential for FMS for the F-22 is VERY interesting. Lots of implications there.
Bruce, drunken tourists have been known to wake the dead…
Lex, you must admit that the fun parts wouldn’t be near as much fun without the icky parts, with which to compare them.
Looking at it from another point of view, wise people have said that most people are unable to remember pain; otherwise, no one would get out of bed in the morning, or bear a child more than once.
Maggie-
Although it is possible your NPR does have a better idea of why Australians swung away from the Coalition than (you know) actual Australians I think you’ll find that those that tell you Iraq ranked way down the list might actually be on to something…..
Sim – I agree, my words about NPR were completely sarcastic. I think Howard was ousted on domestic issues. I think the American liberal media made it about Bush. Sorry if that didn’t come across.
I was being wise about the reporter starting his story with the words with “…most Australians will tell you it was about domestic issues…” then launching into Iraq.