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| Cruising downtown Jakarta | |
With Australia's
F-111s looking more and more like a relic from the last century, Australia's
air-force faces a gap in its defenses after their scheduled retirement around
2010. The gap now seems to destined to be filled by some air-launched cruise
missiles. Missiles which can be launched safely from International airspace and
take out pinpoint targets in downtown Jakarta. Always quick to scream victim, the Indonesian government has
hit back. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalagawa is quoted on
the ABC as
We may legitimately ask against whom would such a weapons system be targeted.It's a legitimate question from our part and therefore we have some question
mark about the wisdom of this latest decision.
and he has accused Australia of a 'lack of consultation'. It would seem that our Muslim neighbors are appalled at
the prospect of a regional arms race. Or maybe not that appalled on closer
inspection. The Indonesian air-force recently took delivery of two soviet Su-27s, which
can out-maneuver, out-distance, and outfight Australia's FA-18s. And did our
northern friends 'consult' with Australia about this purchase? Apparently sovereign nations only
have a duty to consult with their neighbors about weapons purchases if they are predominantly
white. Australia faces the prospect of being bombed without being able to bomb
back, and our northern members of the Religion of Peace are horrified
that Australia might take action to prevent that situation. Indonesian officials were similarly horrified recently that some
one third of Australians believed that Indonesia posed a risk to Australia,
and were concerned about the prospect of invasion. Presumably it never occurred
to them that thirty years of persistently cultivating public hatred of
Australia might also have an effect on the psyche of Australians. Just one of
the many disadvantages in not being able to control the Australian media. But
there's a simple fix to that .. Indonesia of course has given a clear indication of how seriously they take
the killing of Australians with the acquittal of one of the Bali bombers.
Balanced and sane people generally prefer to subscribe to explanations
involving ignorance over conspiracy, but sometimes
that's a hard thing to do. Charging bombers with sexy new untested,
retrospective terrorism
laws without throwing in mundane changes like murder, reckless endangerment
and illegal parking is pretty suspicious. The bombers look like being acquitted
on the sexy new charges, and double jeopardy rules may prevent them being
retried for the same crime. But the Indonesians are not without sympathizers in Australia. The ALP have always been desperate to
please the Indonesians - Paul (foul-mouth) Keating seemed to take orders
directly from his business partners in Jakarta, and the tradition continues to
the current day. Kim (Fatboy) Beasley has been wheezing that Little Johnny
hasn't been 'explaining our position' to the Indonesians to their satisfaction. But Little Johnny's one-liner said it all on this occasion:
Our neighbors understand our position perfectly well.
Absolutely. It's enough to make the ASIO's pro-Jakarta lobby stir from their
tea-breaks.
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