Obama sends US Troops to Australia to destabilize region and improve prospects for weapons profiteering

US Marines Arrive in Australia
Phil Mercer – VOA – 4 April, 2012

United States Marines of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment complete quarantine checks as they arrive at a Royal Australian Air Force Base in Darwin, April 4, 2012.
Photo: Reuters
United States Marines of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment complete quarantine checks as they arrive at a Royal Australian Air Force Base in Darwin, April 4, 2012.

U.S. Marines have started to arrive in northern Australia as Washington strengthens its presence in the strategically vital Asia-Pacific region. Two hundred troops touched down in Darwin late Tuesday as part of a deployment outlined during a visit to Australia by President Obama in November, a move that has irritated China.

The detachment is the first batch of an expected deployment of 2,500 military personnel to be posted to northern Australia.

The troops are based in Australia’s Northern Territory on a six-month rotational basis and will be stationed at Robertson Barracks on the outskirts of Darwin.

The Australian government says the arrangement was the latest chapter in a six-decade military alliance with the United States.

Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith says the stationing of U.S. Marines in Darwin is in the interests of global peace and stability.

“The world is to essentially comes to grips with the rise of China, the rise of India, the move of strategic and political and economic influence to our part of the world and we need to ensure that we do that in a way in which the international community responds to that change, manages that change and we believe very strongly that what we are doing will enhance that rather than detract from it,” he said.

Australia is keen to stress that the U.S. military presence will only be temporary and that there are no plans for any permanent American bases on its soil. U.S. officials also say that they want to expand their disaster relief capabilities in Southeast Asia. …more