Frank wrote on Dec 14
th, 2023 at 8:44am:
The US Navy has asked Australia to send a warship to the Red Sea as part of an expanded international task force, in response to growing attacks on shipping by Iran-backed militia that are threatening vital global sea lanes.
The move, under consideration by the Albanese government, would mark a major escalation in Australia’s response to the unfolding crisis in the Middle East and reflect fears the conflict could become a region-wide war.
Any Australian warship sent to the Red Sea in this crisis would be entering a hot war zone where it could easily find itself fired upon and forced to fire back amid a volatile and fast-changing security situation.
There are only three potential reasons Australia would say no to a US Navy request to help protect commercial shipping through sea lanes where more than 12 per cent of the world’s trade passes, including many billions of dollars of Australian imports and exports.
The first is that there has been a change in Australia’s strategic priorities to such a degree that we no longer support sending military assets out of our immediate region except in extreme circumstances.
The second is that the navy is so rundown, so inadequately funded, that it does not have a ship, crew or appropriate weapons to be able to muster at short notice a single ship for deployment to a hot war zone in the Middle East.
The third is that the government is wary of alienating Arab and pro-Palestinian voters in Australia by sending a warship to the Middle East when it is stepping up calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and is increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct of its war on Hamas.
“Defence Minister Marles is manipulating the so-called Defence of Australia doctrine and the primacy of our region of primary strategic concern as an excuse,” Dibb tells Inquirer.
“It was never meant to exclude modest contributions to the joint allied effort. He talks with abandon about protecting sea lines of communication elsewhere but seems to ignore the fact that sea lines from the Persian Gulf through to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal are critical for oil supplies.”
“Only days after the US congress had agreed, with qualifications, to sell us three Virginia-class SSNs (nuclear submarines), Canberra looks a gift horse in the mouth and says no to deploying a solitary warship into the Red Sea,” he says. “
This is not only highly embarrassing, it is a national disgrace.”
It is a disgrace. Spineless Labor is afraid of upsetting the Muslims by actually pushing back against Islamists jeopardising international shipping lanes. Albo is prepared to fight only Tories, the Bbwianesque little twerp.
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