Saturday, 4 December 1999 Timor can rightfully be called a tragedy but not only for the Timorese. Today all is quite on the Timor front. Since the initial flurry the politicians have gone back to dreaming; the people back to sleeping. The �national walkabout� however cannot take away the Timor reality. Australia is no longer the proud military force that we wish to believe; its character has been totally changed by successive political parties. Depending on what you read our deployment capability, on a full time basis, varies. For instance The Australian has reported the figure as low as 1,000 and but recently at 3,000 (20/06/97 , 09/09/99). Of the 4,500 troops in Timor nearly 400 are reservists. SIMPLY WE SENT IN EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE KITCHEN SINK. The Timor reality is this. We now have the whole Australian front-line army (and more) on one small island surrounded by an Indonesian army of 250,000 men. In three days Indonesia can place in another 50,000 troops; Australia cannot respond - the Kitchen Sink is already there. Any sensible analysis can only conclude that Timor is a production factory for dead bodies. If there is any Timor miracle it is that we have not seen them yet. If there is any question it is how many there will be. There is one place in the whole world that the Australian army should NOT BE at the moment; this is Timor. This is not to say that the Timorese do not deserve support. It is to say that we, as a nation, have a morality that is far in excess of the imagined military capacity of the national dreamtime. Yours Faithfully Kerry Spencer-Salt B.E., LL.B (Hons) The National Watchman Australian Community Organisation P.O. Box 136, Surry Hills NSW 2010 Phone : (02) 9360 0610 E-Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website : www.rockroll.com.au/watchman ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. To unsubscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=unsubscribe To subscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=subscribe For information on [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.neither.org/lists/public-list.htm For archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
