U.S. to base Marines in Australia
US President Barack Obama will use a visit to Australia next week to announce that America will station Marines in Darwin, ministers indicated Friday, in a sign of heightened concern about China.
The Sydney Morning Herald said that the new permanent military presence had been under consideration for some years as Washington looks to boost its Pacific Command, and senior Australian politicians did not deny the plan.
The US currently has only a limited deployment in longstanding ally Australia, including the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility spy station near Alice Springs, and the move represents a potentially significant geo-strategic shift.
US Marines are already based at Okinawa in Japan and on Guam as America’s chief combat force in the Pacific theatre, and analysts said the Australian move was largely a response to the rise of China.
Beijing is boosting its military spending and capabilities, and becoming increasingly assertive on the high seas where it claims sovereignty over essentially all of the South China Sea, a key global trading route.
“China looms very large for both Australia and the US,” said Professor Geoffrey Garrett, chief executive of the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, adding that the US strategy had two elements.
Full article here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/11/u-s-set-to-base-marines-in-australia/
) Uncle Sam could have sent me with all expenses paid, plus a modest slalry back in the day.
