US Marines to deploy to Australia

[EnglishLady]

BBC

Australia has agreed to host a full US Marine task force in the coming years, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced at a news conference with US President Barack Obama in Canberra.

She said about 250 US Marines would arrive next year, eventually being built up to 2,500 personnel.

The deployment is being seen as a move to counter China's growing influence.

But Mr Obama said the US was "stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific", not excluding China.

"The main message that I've said, not only publicly but also privately to China, is that with their rise comes increased responsibility," he said.

"It is important for them to play by the rules of the road."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin questioned whether the move was in keeping with the region's peaceful development

It may not be quite appropriate to intensify and expand military alliances and may not be in the interest of countries within this region," he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

The Global Times, a newspaper produced by the Communist Party-controlled People's Daily group, has been much more bellicose, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.

An editorial warned it was "certain" that if "Australia uses its military bases to help the US harm Chinese interests, then Australia itself will be caught in the crossfire".

Luo Yuan, a senior officer at the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Sciences told the paper that while neither the US or China wanted to start a war, "if China's core interests such as its sovereignty, national security and unity are intruded on, a military conflict will be unavoidable".

Alliance honoured

The US president flew into Canberra from this weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum in Honolulu.

The visit comes as the two countries mark a 60-year security alliance.

Ms Gillard said about 250 Marines would be deployed on a rotational basis in northern Australia from next year.

"Australia will welcome deployments of a company-size rotation of 200 to 250 Marines in the Northern Territory for around six months at a time," she said.

"Over a number of years we intend to build on this relationship in a staged way to a full force of around 2,500 personnel, that is a full Marine air-ground task force."

Analysts said the deployment was the biggest in Australia since World War II.

Mr Obama said the deployment would allow the US to "meet the demands of a lot of partners in the region" in terms of training, exercises and "security architecture".

Later in his visit the US leader is due to visit a memorial in Darwin to honour US and Australian soldiers killed during World War II.

Mr Obama has twice cancelled visits to Australia in the past - in March 2010 as he worked to pass healthcare reform legislation and then in June the same year amid the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

After his stop in Darwin, Mr Obama flies to Indonesia for a summit of Asian leaders.

 

[EnglishLady]

Update

BBC

Obama stakes US claim to Pacific


US President Obama says Asia-Pacific is key to future

US President Barack Obama has said that the Asia-Pacifc region will play a key role in defining the world's future.

Speaking to the Australian parliament in Canberra, Mr Obama said the US was now turning its attention to the region.

His comments come after Australia agreed to host a full US Marine taskforce in the coming years.

China has questioned the move, which many analysts see as being a counter to Beijing's growing influence.

However, Mr Obama was clear in his message about the role the US would play in the Asia-Pacific region.

"Let there be no doubt: In the Asia-Pacific in the 21st century, the United States of America is all in," he said.

"With most of the world's nuclear powers and some half of humanity, Asia will largely define whether the century ahead will be marked by conflict or cooperation, needless suffering or human progress."

"As a Pacific nation, the United States will play a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future by upholding core principles and in close partnership with our allies and friends."

Mr Obama continued by saying that, as the world's biggest economy, the US was keen to increase its presence in the region and play a bigger role in its development and progress.

At the same time he told the Australian Parliament that the US was working towards getting its own economy back on track.

He said the US had taken some hard decisions to cut is deficit and will continue to do more to ensure that growth rebounded.

China factor

Mr Obama underlined that the alliance between the US and Australia was an indispensable one and had never been stronger.

However, the growing proximity - especially a bigger US military presence in Australia - hasn't gone down well with China.

The US President used his speech in Canberra to emphasise a willingness to cooperate with Beijing and improve communication between the superpowers.

"We've seen that China can be a partner, from reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula, to preventing proliferation," he said.

"We'll seek more opportunities for cooperation with Beijing, including greater communication between our militaries, to promote understanding and avoid miscalculation."

However, Mr Obama called upon the authorities in Beijing to change their policies as well.

"We will do this, even as [we] continue to speak candidly with Beijing about the importance of upholding international norms and respecting the universal human rights of the Chinese people," he added

 

[greg334]

Why should we have another deployment of troops to serve no purpose at all when Australia and other Asian countries are capable of handling any threat in the region?

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Why should we have another deployment of troops to serve no purpose at all when Australia and other Asian countries are capable of handling any threat in the region?

We have to have the Worlds Police force close to any potential action..Greg...That base will create a mini economy for Australia..up to 2500 troops plus support group.....I'd be looking for side deal with Australia somewhere under the blankets...

 

[greg334]

SO then Australia needs to pay for our presence there as should SK and other countries. We already have a large contingency in Japan and other places, so ... maybe we need to rethink the world police thing again.

 

[skyraider]

Hey now,,Aussie is good duty,,Id be volunteering if I was still in the Navy. Had some friends who went there on a side trip in 70 and they did not want to leave. It will be good duty, at least its warm there and lots to see......................

Now we will have a friendly country to launch our planes, subs, and so on if the so called poop hits the fan.

 

[purgoose10]

I also took two R&R's there during V/Nam and loved it. Would love to go back.
The Marine force thats going is partly a Recon training group. What better place to train than in the outback with a week end in the Darby. Their biggest problem is staying in shape while drinking all that Aussie beer.

 

[greg334]

Hey I got a great Idea, why don't we rotate all military through Australia for R&R while drawing down our troop levels in Japan, SK and other Pacific Rim countries?

This way everyone gets a great vacation, Australia gets the money while we are fulfilling Obama's promise to colonize the Pacific Rim and we can reduce the cost doing it.

 

[layoutshooter]

Hey I got a great Idea, why don't we rotate all military through Australia for R&R while drawing down our troop levels in Japan, SK and other Pacific Rim countries?

This way everyone gets a great vacation, Australia gets the money while we are fulfilling Obama's promise to colonize the Pacific Rim and we can reduce the cost doing it.

Are you going to volunteer to rewrite all the treaties involved AND the Constitution of Japan? Don't count on our government doing that. I don't want that job. It would interfere with my hunting.

 

[greg334]

Are you going to volunteer to rewrite all the treaties involved AND the Constitution of Japan? Don't count on our government doing that. I don't want that job. It would interfere with my hunting.

Here is the thing, Japan can pay for us to defend them, the treaty we have with them does not include occupation but we are using 1950 tactics for a problem that is 21st century in nature. Think about the threats Japan is facing and look at their military.

The same goes for SK and other countries, they can afford to pay us or they can afford to build up their own military without our occupation.

It comes down to this, whether we want to drain our revenue to provide an offensive force or an force to protect other countries at the expense of our own country or do we want to actually defend our own country by retracting and growing stronger.

China and Russia may be a threat to these countries, but when you come down to it, we can't survive a war with either of them in the condition we are in no matter how you want to try to cut it. The same goes for a protracted war in the middle east based on a trigger from say Syria or Iran, we are not in the position to fight with what condition our economy is in. Our present problem that many think is supporting Israel but it isn't, our problem is that we can't seem to actually do what we say in the middle east and keep allies, we have more issue with Pakistan now than we do with Afghanistan. Pakistan is far more important than Afghanistan will ever be, and the stability of our economy depends on that stability, not with Afghanistan.

It is not about protecting our national interests overseas, it is about fixing our real problems here first which has to do more with national security than having troops scattered all over the place waiting for something to happen that won't or trying to fight a war against style of fighting.

 

[layoutshooter]

Occupy Japan? The last I heard the US occupation in Japan ended in 1952. I was one year old then. I guess I missed something when I was stationed there. I though I was there under a statute of forces agreement.

 

[greg334]

We occupy Japan according to the treaty they signed at the end of the war stating that they will not have an offensive army, so we have had bases in Japan since the end of the war in order to have a presence there. The same goes for SK, which we have yet to declare war on NK and really don't need to be there, SK is not a poor country, NK is no more a threat to us as say Canada but we act as if NK is going to invade the US.

What concerns we should have is with Mexico, they are in what many consider a civil war, maybe more being killed there than in Libya and other parts of the middle east combined - we don't know. BUT because Mexico is not just a trading partner through a common border, they also share a heritage with our culture and we should treat their war as a national security issue over and above that of any other country except Canada.

 

[EnglishLady]

We occupy Japan according to the treaty they signed at the end of the war stating that they will not have an offensive army, so we have had bases in Japan since the end of the war in order to have a presence there. The same goes for SK, which we have yet to declare war on NK and really don't need to be there, SK is not a poor country, NK is no more a threat to us as say Canada but we act as if NK is going to invade the US.

from Wiki
The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8, 1951, marked the end of the Allied occupation, and after it came into force on April 28, 1952, Japan was once again an independent country

 

[layoutshooter]

We have very few "combat" forces in Japan. That draw down began when I was there in '71-72. The only large combat force left in japan is on Okinawa, and that is being drawn down as well.