AUT: OZ shoulders white man's burden (fwd)

[pmargin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Wright)]

forwarded originally to the IWW list . . .

>
>Oz walks bravely into a vaccuum - joins the brits as the U$ peacekeeping
>deputy in the new world order - discovers responsibility to "do things
>above and beyond in this part of the world", - by jingo they'll be needing
>to discover how to make Oz nuclear weapons next.
>
>Cheers
>MichaelP
>
>========================================
>
>Agence France Press
>
>Australia's Howard unveils new post-Timor doctrine on Asia
>
>SYDNEY, Sept 22 (AFP) - Australia will upgrade its defence forces and
>embrace a new role as the United States' peacekeeping "deputy" in Asia,
>Australian Prime Minister John Howard said in an interview released
>Wednesday.
>
>Speaking with The Bulletin magazine, the prime minister unveiled the
>"Howard Doctrine", which he said would see Australia take a new place in
>Asia now that it had led a multinational security force into East Timor.
>
>"We have displayed our responsibility, shouldered the burden we should
>have," Howard told the magazine in an interview published in its September
>28 edition released Wednesday.
>
>Australia, he said, "has a particular responsibility to do things above
>and beyond in this part of the world" and was prepared to take on a role
>as America's "deputy" in the region.
>
>That new role would mean increasing defence spending and make upgrading
>the military a priority that could stand in the way of other, less urgent
>needs, Howard said.
>
>The prime minister said Australia's role in leading a multinational
>security force into East Timor this week had set a precedent for its
>future role under the "Howard Doctrine".
>
>"Despite the inevitable tensions that are involved (in East Timor) and
>some of the sensitivities, this has done a lot to cement Australia's place
>in the region," Howard said.
>
>"We have been seen by countries, not only in the region but around the
>world, as being able to do something that probaly no other country could
>do, because of the special characteristics we have, because we occupy that
>special place -- we are a European, Western civilization with strong links
>with North America, but here we are in Asia."
>
>But Howard said there was a caveat to Australia's future role in Asia.
>
>Australia, he said, planned to be a "participant on our own terms" in Asia
>and would spend less time worrying about fitting in.
>
>"In foreign policy, we spent too much time fretting about whether we were
>in Asia, or part of Asia, or whatever. We should be ourselves in Asia."
>
>Australia's Labor governments in the 1980s and early 1990s, he said, had
>spent too long worrying about offending Indonesia and trying to make
>Australia "much like the countries in the region."
>
>The prime minister said he expected Australia's relationship with
>Indonesia would be repaired in the coming years and speculated that work
>could begin once the current "power vacuum" in Jakarta was resolved.
>
>"I think power is shifting almost on a daily, weekly basis between groups
>and different individuals ... They are on a real cusp," he said.
>
>"When it settles down and a new administration -- whoever will be there --
>is installed, and if it does go down the path of democracy as we all hope
>it will, I'm not sure it will take long to resuscitate the relationship."
>
>
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>
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