"The US President's trip has been all about muscling up to Beijing, with Australia urging him on. Hamish McDonald, Matt Wade, John Garnaut and Tom Allard report.
With Barack Obama sending a US Marine Corps ''Air Ground Task Force'' on regular station in Darwin, a line from the movie Crocodile Dundee seems appropriate: ''This is a knife.'' (Sydney Morning Herald)
OK...so Obama's flexing a bit and sending some Marines who'll be up in sweaty, swampy Darwin. All fine by me, Mr President. But Israel is the only nation in the world which is daily under threat of annihilation. The US Navy from time to time, visits Israel's main port of Haifa. Around 150 US personnel are at any one time somewhere in the country, but there's no US bases anywhere in Israel. If America wasn't so dependent on Arab oil do you think there would bases in the Gulf and thousands of the US military on mission impossible? Nope. (Another good reason to drill at home and pipe from Canada).
A few thousand marines on a permanent base around Ashdod or Askelon would help concentrate the minds of Hamas and Iran.
Israel (only slightly larger than New Jersey), is the only democracy in the region. Surviving against all the odds, it's America's natural and only true ally.
Meanwhile largely because of oil, the US military is stationed and fighting in the sandy wastes of permanently dysfunctioning Islamic regimes, each more vile than the next. Cracker-pot countries with their leaders who hate democracy and the west; this mirage of a marriage and contortion of convenience, is based mostly on America's need and Arab greed.
The next resident of the Whitehouse must finally act to end this perverse coupling.
For more info on US Navy/Israeli co-operation: http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=43253
(Photo: Copyright Control; Illustration: John Shakespeare).
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| How about some Marines in Israel, Obama? |
OK...so Obama's flexing a bit and sending some Marines who'll be up in sweaty, swampy Darwin. All fine by me, Mr President. But Israel is the only nation in the world which is daily under threat of annihilation. The US Navy from time to time, visits Israel's main port of Haifa. Around 150 US personnel are at any one time somewhere in the country, but there's no US bases anywhere in Israel. If America wasn't so dependent on Arab oil do you think there would bases in the Gulf and thousands of the US military on mission impossible? Nope. (Another good reason to drill at home and pipe from Canada).
 |
| On the USS Mason, Haifa, Israel. CMDR. Adan G. Cruz And CMDR. Kevin M. Robinson handing over command. |
Israel (only slightly larger than New Jersey), is the only democracy in the region. Surviving against all the odds, it's America's natural and only true ally.
Meanwhile largely because of oil, the US military is stationed and fighting in the sandy wastes of permanently dysfunctioning Islamic regimes, each more vile than the next. Cracker-pot countries with their leaders who hate democracy and the west; this mirage of a marriage and contortion of convenience, is based mostly on America's need and Arab greed.
The next resident of the Whitehouse must finally act to end this perverse coupling.
For more info on US Navy/Israeli co-operation: http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=43253
(Photo: Copyright Control; Illustration: John Shakespeare).
