Howard agrees to let US test weapons in north Australia

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/06/wozz06.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/11/06/ixportal.html

The United States will be allowed to test smart bombs and other cutting-edge military technology in Australia in a further sign of the deepening alliance between the two Iraq war allies.

Under the plan, the US military will experiment with self-guided smart bombs and launch live bombing raids in three huge training areas in Australia's sparsely populated tropical north.

Australia's prime minister, John Howard, is one of the staunchest allies of President George W Bush, having committed troops to US-led operations in Afghanistan and last year's invasion of Iraq, despite domestic opposition. Details of the plan were disclosed by Ross Babbage, an Australian former defence official who has just returned from briefings in Washington.

While the Australian government played down the reports, they are in keeping with an agreement signed in July to allow the American military access to training facilities in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

[ibegurpard]

1. How nice.

I wonder if the Australian people realized that was on the menu when they re-elected this fascist.

[aquart]

2. Talk about unholy alliances.

[ogradda]

3. i'm sure iraq will be pleased to hear

they're probably getting bored with all the old fashioned ways of eradicating them.

[NuttyFluffers]

4. can we caveat to leave Howard there with a catcher's mitt?

y'know, just bouncing around potential ideas. if he was a 'real ally' he'd catch our bombs... maybe he has inadequate faith in bush...

[Webster Green]

5. Outlaw nations....

they will be dealt with accordingly

watch out everybody!

[foreigncorrespondent]

6. Oh wonderful!!!!

How nice, he has basically destroyed his own nation, and now he is turning on ours! And our stupid little snibbling idiot PM gives him the go ahead. Guess the American greenbacks taste better than the lobster he sits down to.

[no safe haven]

7. Gosh, I don't see why not ...*sarcasm*

Howard's (other) poster boy, ultra-conservative 1950s/60s PM Menzies, fell all over himself to enable the Brits to test their nuclear weapons here at a place called Maralinga. The tests were conducted on the traditional lands of the Maralinga and Pitjantjatjara peoples, who were expossed to radioactive poisoning, considered by many to be an act of genocide, not to mention laying to waste 1000s of sq.kms of their country. The colonial mentality of the Liberal Party lives on to this day. Much of the land in northern Australia is Aboriginal land, and once again, they will doubtless be compromised by the fed gov.
I'm sickened.