@MaxG
Yes. That is what happens whenever a country sought the safety of the #American nuclear umbrella. As #Europe did after the war. As #Japan was made to do after the War. So?

Japan is working to get #Okinawa back. The US bases in Europe no longer appear to be as permanent as they once were before #Trump. #Nato itself, a US military bastion is openly talking about going it without them. Korea is shitting itself for fear of an American pull out. Leaders in SouthEast #Asia are looking to shore up their defence ties and markets elsewhere.

And you’re telling me that Australia is unable to break away should the political will arise or its national interests demand? We are no more nor less brave than the rest of the world in that respect. Right now though, there is nothing urgently requiring Australia to break away from the US alliance, so why would we? A few Chinese navy vessels circumnavigating the Continent is certainly not reason enough. Tariffs are not either - we didn’t cut off trade with China when they banned Australian products.

The best defence is a credible #deterence and Australia has always relied on alliances to do what it will not do for itself and there is a price to pay for that. We either stick with the dubious US promise to come to our aid or we decide to provide that deterrence on our pat malone. Those are the choices in the Pacific, there are no others when we exclude #China and #Russia.

Note - Nothing is set in concrete once friends turn out to be not so friendly or unreliable allies. That’s how wars start.

@Ex_spurt
Yes, I’m with you here.

There was no way I was going to get into the subject to any depth via toots, right? I mean, even the Conversation authors baulked at that. If I had time (meaning putting aside all of the things I want to do on a day to day basis) I’d write a book on the subject and even that wouldn’t be enough. There are so many rabbit holes to explore here.

But what can be discussed publicly are things like:
- should we be more self-reliant in #Defence #logistics
- should we build our own #arms (squad weapons and up)?
- should we rely on powerful #allies to keep Australia safe from invasion?
- should we pour money in #dual-use manufacturing?
- should we incentivise #MilitaryService ?
- should all manufactures specifically related to defence equipment be publicly owned?
- should we have a #ForwardDefence strategy or a more limited projection?
- should we build and launch sovereign #satellites on sovereign #launchers and should these be produced domestically?
- should we develop a continental #AirDefence system?
- should we keep all #Australian personnel on Australian soil (or platform)?
- should we change our #Constitution to make our #ADF “defence’ only?
- what form/characteristics should our national #deterence take?

And jezzz, there are so many other questions that can be discussed in the public forum without giving up any ‘classified’ information (such as capability, capacity, mission, etc).