US Military Bases in Australia

It now becomes a little clearer as to why Australia has been such a staunch supporter of America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our politicians knew something we didn't - the USA is coming down under to shore up a strong defense force against China. They are set to expand their military presence here in a big way and those who object to it are fools.

The Americans are already established in Guam, Japan, South Korea and Hawaii but those bases are all within range of Chinese missiles. Australia is not in Asia, it's on the edge of it. Personnel at the US base on the border between North and South Korea would be the first to be wiped out in the event of trouble as the US President would rush to the aid of South Korea. Not so in Australia, US forces would have plenty of time to redeploy.

Washington wants to increase its size of training exercises here but we don't have the right facilities - let's face it, pouring money into becoming a powerful military entity is the last thing on our minds, so we need all the help we can get. But the US needs to make urgent cut-backs in defense so can they afford it?

Experts say that China's rapid military build-up is very real and of grave concern. Their military budget has grown nearly 70 per cent over the last five years but it pales into insignificance when compared to the US budget for 2012 of $553 billion.

And then there's the problem of Taiwan, we know only too well how touchy China is about it - there was a rumour floating around that the US refused to sell Taiwan 66 new Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighter jets because China told them not to.

Meanwhile, we are preparing our biggest military build-up since WWII which includes 12 new submarines and 4 AWD to the Navy armed with cruise missiles capable of striking 400 kilometres from the Australian shoreline.

So should we be worried? I don't think so. Why would China want to wipe out America anyway, they would lose 300 million of their best customers and the way they are buying up real estate in Australia, they'll own half of the country anyway.