The Lackey Country?
Many of my Lefty friends lament that (according to their perception) Australia is the catamite of the USA.
I am deeply upset to feel myself being pulled towards the conclusion that Australia is not only the catamite of the USA, but, faithless little slut that we are, we have been butterflying with Indonesia and, I suspect, China as well.
Have we no shame?
What about the alleged pro-Jakarta lobby allaegedly revealed by the East Timor Cover Up?
The East Timor Cover Up is not a debacle, but is rather a complex of alleged debacles.
What I can't understand is, how it is that a proud country can have a pro-giant-neighbour lobby within its defence and foreign affairs bureaucracy.
Is this just a Machieavellian realpolitik Kissingeresque pro-Jakarta stance? If so, why would they go to such an extent to tone down internal not-for-public-consumption intelligence reports which stated nothing more than what every Joe Blow in every suburban pub knew: that the "militias" that were engaging in genocide or were about to engage in genocide were backed by the Indonesian military.
You didn't need intelligence officers over there to know that.
OK, if we were pretending that the TNI wasn't backing the "militias", then I could understand if such reports were not made public and the people whose job it is to publicly lie about such things lied about them. There'd be no scandal and all would be well. But to crush a public servant for giving a frank and fearless report to his seniors? To cut off his access to the intelligence database while he was in the field?
So, in the ensuing hoo-haa, the Perfumed Princes appoint an Army lawyer to conduct an investigation and whitewash the whole thing. Except that he decides that the poor little intelligence officer is right and there is a pro-Jakarta lobby lurking in the shadows of the defence establishment. Bzzzzt wrong! You are the weakest link. Goodbye. His career gets trashed too.
My question is: has our defence establishment been penetrated? Is it corrupt? Are there traitors there? Or are they merely specialists who have come to identify with their specialisation and hate to see it look bad, a sort of Stockholm syndrome, in which case there may be nothing more sinister than a case of human, all-too-human? Even the latter case is incompetence that must be dealt with immediately and vigorously.
For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Collins
By the way, is anyone taking bets on how much longer Indonesia can hold together?
I am deeply upset to feel myself being pulled towards the conclusion that Australia is not only the catamite of the USA, but, faithless little slut that we are, we have been butterflying with Indonesia and, I suspect, China as well.
Have we no shame?
What about the alleged pro-Jakarta lobby allaegedly revealed by the East Timor Cover Up?
The East Timor Cover Up is not a debacle, but is rather a complex of alleged debacles.
What I can't understand is, how it is that a proud country can have a pro-giant-neighbour lobby within its defence and foreign affairs bureaucracy.
Is this just a Machieavellian realpolitik Kissingeresque pro-Jakarta stance? If so, why would they go to such an extent to tone down internal not-for-public-consumption intelligence reports which stated nothing more than what every Joe Blow in every suburban pub knew: that the "militias" that were engaging in genocide or were about to engage in genocide were backed by the Indonesian military.
You didn't need intelligence officers over there to know that.
OK, if we were pretending that the TNI wasn't backing the "militias", then I could understand if such reports were not made public and the people whose job it is to publicly lie about such things lied about them. There'd be no scandal and all would be well. But to crush a public servant for giving a frank and fearless report to his seniors? To cut off his access to the intelligence database while he was in the field?
So, in the ensuing hoo-haa, the Perfumed Princes appoint an Army lawyer to conduct an investigation and whitewash the whole thing. Except that he decides that the poor little intelligence officer is right and there is a pro-Jakarta lobby lurking in the shadows of the defence establishment. Bzzzzt wrong! You are the weakest link. Goodbye. His career gets trashed too.
My question is: has our defence establishment been penetrated? Is it corrupt? Are there traitors there? Or are they merely specialists who have come to identify with their specialisation and hate to see it look bad, a sort of Stockholm syndrome, in which case there may be nothing more sinister than a case of human, all-too-human? Even the latter case is incompetence that must be dealt with immediately and vigorously.
For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Collins
By the way, is anyone taking bets on how much longer Indonesia can hold together?
posted by Patrick Henry at 23:25
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