Failing state: Invade! Invade!

[Peter Boyle <peterb@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"Solomon Islands, one of Australia's nearest neighbours, is
a failing state. Over the past five years, a slow-burning
political and security crisis has paralysed the country's
capital, stifled its economy, disrupted government,
discouraged aid donors, and inflicted suffering and hardship
on its people. It has virtually ceased to function as an
effective national entity.

"The consequences for Australia are serious. A failing state
on our doorstep engages Australia's interests at many
levels, from short-term economic, consular and humanitarian
concerns to our most enduring strategic imperatives..."

Read more from this report by a junior imperialist think
tank, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute which
prompted WMD serial deceiver and George Bush's favourite
deputy sheriff in the Pacific to announce his own mini
pre-emptive imperial intervention. Like Bush, he wants to
improve his odds of a quick military success by taking in
overwhelming force - a warship, helicopters and a couple of
thousand troops - instead of the 150 police recommended:

<http://www.aspi.org.au/solomons/index.html>

Meanwhile, the ALP ?opposition? wants to stick more closely
to the APSI recommendations. See below.

Peter Boyle

***

Labor backs troops for Solomons

AAP June 25, 2003

LABOR would support a government decision to send Australian
troops to the Solomon Islands but only if it was a minor
military presence, Opposition foreign spokesman Kevin Rudd
said today.

He said Labor wanted police, rather than military
peacekeepers, to be sent to the Pacific island nation to
restore law and order.

Mr Rudd said the National Security Committee of Cabinet was
meeting today to discuss a plan for the dispatch of troops
to the Solomon Islands.

The Government would not confirm if the meeting was going
ahead.

"The Australian Labor Party would have some profound
reservations about any Australian presence in the Solomon
Islands which involves any substantial military - that is
army presence - as opposed to police presence," Mr Rudd
said.

"Plainly, the situation in the Solomon Islands is dire,
plainly a response is required both by the Government of
Australia and the Government of New Zealand.

"But our argument is that any such involvement by Australia
should be primarily a police presence and much less a
military presence.

"And furthermore, we need to be absolutely confident the
approval of the Solomon Islands government has been
obtained."

He said the best way to address the collapse of the
Solomons' police service and to restore law and order was to
put police on the ground.

But he conceded there may be a case for some military
presence.

"We don't rule out a form of military presence necessarily
but we would be exceptionally concerned if this military
presence was in any way overwhelming or dominant," Mr Rudd
said.

"If operationally it is concluded that some military
presence is additionally needed, we simply say this should
be considered very cautiously, very carefully and if it was
ever to be considered, it should be a minimal military
presence."

A recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
found the Solomons was a failing state, with a high risk
that it would become ungovernable.

Its political and security crisis had paralysed the capital
Honiara, stifled the economy, disrupted the government and
inflicted suffering on its 450,000 people, the report said.