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| Southeast Asia |
| Aussie commando's in E.Timor ready to shoot to kill |
| 2006-05-26 |
| AUSTRALIAN troops are ready to shoot to kill to defend themselves as they try to separate warring factions in East Timor's capital, where tensions remained high today and armed gangs threatened thousands of refugees. Australian soldiers continued to pour into Dili from aircraft and naval vessels today, and patrols fanned out this morning as gunfire and explosions continued to ring around the capital. The size of the Australian force swelled to nearly 600, with soldiers backed by armoured personnel carriers, Black Hawk helicopters and the navy frigate HMAS Adelaide. More troops were tonight on their way to East Timor aboard navy transport ships Kanimbla, Manoora and Tobruk, and all 1300 members of the task force were expected in Dili by the weekend. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #2 I think we are discovering why Washington gave the OK to Suharto when Indonesian forces grabbed East Timor in the 1970's, just as the territory was about to turn communist, thanks to a left-wing coup in Portugal. Indonesian control served several purposes - it provided semi-competent rule in a region (the South Pacific) where indigenous rule is characterized by incompetence, corruption and violence (just look at Papua New Guinea), added a Christian ballast to the primarly-Muslim Indonesian state and prevented the establishment of a Soviet base right next to Australia. I've always thought of the intervention in East Timor as a major mistake by Clinton - it pissed off the Indonesians for nothing - it benefitted neither East Timorese nor Indonesia. The other big Clinton blunder was the snarky remarks out of Washington and the administration's sitting on its hands during the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990's. This last is the primary reason for the virulent anti-Americanism coming out of East Asia - a free enterprise region that should be extremely friendly to the US. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-05-26 15:12 |
| #1 Sickum Diggers! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-26 11:15 |