Down Under
Posted on November 17, 2011
I always thought that if we got into a war with China, it would be because of a misstep in Taiwan.Now, I am more inclined to believe it be because of a Chinese effort to invade Australia.
President Obama announced yesterday that he was sending the Marines to Australia. From the vantage point of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, it was a curious decision.
But if you are living in Australia or if you are an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, the decision couldn’t come soon enough.
There isn’t going to be shooting war in Australia any time soon, but the fact of the matter is that the Aussies are more than just our strategic partners. They are our brothers in arms, an outpost of Western civilization in a part of the world that will soon be overrun by a boisterous and rich communist regime.
Australia is important strategically for many reasons. Many of our intelligence gathering operations are there. They have vast natural resources that will become more important as the century unfolds.
They are the largest exporter of coal in the world.
They have strategically important minerals there, more specifically rare earth minerals that play an important role in everything from your iPhone to weapon systems. China has a near monopoly on rare earth minerals, and the Australians are quickly moving to break that monopoly.
Australia is a threat to China because it is a free-market democracy. The Chinese don’t really like free-market democracies.
The Chinese see the Australians as a threat to their hegemony and they see their resources as a prize to be plucked. Chinese companies are already trying to buy land and make moves into the land down under. Immigration from China has also picked up the pace, and because the Aussies reproduce at about the same rate as white peoples everywhere, the Australian government is going to be under great demographic pressures in the years to come.
All of this serves as a backdrop to the President’s correct decision to bolster our relationship with our friends in Canberra. We need Australia to stay strong and independent and they need our help to fend off the Chinese.
Mr. Obama quite rightly said that America is a Pacific country and that we must continue to project power in the region. Nothing projects power more than sending in the Marines.