The following Editorial was published by The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia, in its issue of February 10th, 2004.
Reproduction of articles, together with acknowledgement if appropriate, is welcome. The Guardian, 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills, Sydney 2010 Australia. Editor: Anna Pha Communist Party of Australia, 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 10 Australia. General Secretary: Peter Symon Phone (02) 9212 6855 Fax: (02) 9281 5795 Email CPA [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Guardian [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscription rates are available on requests. Editorial: More preparations for war in Asia-Pacific The Howard Government took another step in its preparations for a major war in the Pacific with the announcement that it is to spend $1 billion on the purchase of a dozen Global Hawk spy planes from the United States. This plane is manufactured by Northrop Grumman, one of the notorious arms manufacturers which profits from wars. The Global Hawk is an unmanned spy plane capable of operating for 24 hours without refuelling or returning to base and has a reported range of 4800 kms. Without any apology, the Government has upped the purchase of this plane from three to 12 while the cost increased from the originally announced $150 million to $1 billion. Needless to say, if public hospitals or schools asked for such an increase, it would have been rejected with loud declarations that it would wreck the economy. While the purchase is being sold to the public as contributing to Australia's "maritime surveillance" it is primarily for military purposes. Mr Aldo Borgu, an analyst for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, is reported as saying that the purchase is "long overdue" and that "You could even use one to spy on Pyongyang". It adds, "Of course the North Koreans would shoot it down and at $100 million each, maybe that's not a risk you'd want to take". The purchase of the Global Hawks is part of the long-range plans for the extensive militarisation of Australia launched in 2001 by the then Minister of Defence Peter Reith. Launching the ten-year Defence Capability Plan he said it "marks an historic first for Defence". The Plan involves the purchase of some 88 military and naval items of equipment and is now touted to cost $50 billion. In September 2003, Senator Robert Hill, the present Minister for Defence, said the Global Hawk had "leading edge radars and infrared electro-optic technology which would significantly improve Australia's intelligence gathering capabilities during Defence operations". He said that "detailed intelligence is critically important in any Defence operation or mission". Robert Hill's reference to "defence operations" is actually code for Australian and US aggression in the Asia-Pacific region or anywhere else the US decides to attack or invade under its "pre-emptive strike" policy in pursuit of global domination. "If you can put an unmanned vehicle up that can travel for 24 hours over huge distances, you can basically have a continual surveillance capability", said Robert Hill. It is not hard to imagine that the Global Hawks will be flying over Indonesia and every other country in the South East Asian region - Malaysia, Thailand, China and yes, even the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It would be used to spy on ships that the US and Australia plan to "interdict", and to monitor the movement of troops, the building of industries, the progress of food crops and many other targets of strategic or economic interest to US transnational corporations. They would certainly spy on the Pacific Island states - Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands to name a few. This would be an out-and-out violation of the sovereignty of these countries but this does not concern the leaders of the Howard Government who long ago tore up the principles inscribed in the Charter of the United Nations. It might be hoped by some that a future Labor Party Government would reverse the war-mongering and subservient policies pursued by the Howard Government as the "Deputy Sheriff" of the United States. However, when the Defence Capability Plan was announced in 2001, the Labor Party indicated its support. Mark Latham declared when addressing the National Conference of the ALP in January that "Our [foreign] policy has three pillars. Our membership of the United Nations; our alliance with the United States; and comprehensive engagement with Asia". Crunch-time will come for a Labor Government when the US hots up its aggression against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or against the People's Republic of China over the Taiwan issue. The question will then arise, whether Australia truly asserts its independence or once again gives absolute priority to the US alliance. -- Visit the proposed Leftlink web site at http://www.leftlink.net/ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
