Darwin.

This is coolbert:

America moves south!

From a previous blog entry:

"What on Earth are we doing adding a military base in Australia to (anger) China?"

NATION & WORLD

"Obama says E. Asia now military focus"

"Exiting 2 wars and looking toward China, U.S. vows Marines in Australia, trade deals."

"CANBERRA, Australia - - President Barack Obama on Thursday sought to reassure Asian allies anxious about china's growing political and economic clout, announcing a strategic shift to reassert America's role in the Pacific as it pulls back from the post-Sept. 11 war."

. . . .

"Obama's decision comes after several decades in which the U.S. has closed bases and withdrawn from the region."

In particular, a contingent of 2,500 U.S. Marines will now have a permanent base in Australia. Such a large-scale deployment to the southern continent by the American military has not occurred at least since the end of the Second World War [WW2], almost seventy years ago now!!

"They [deployments] include stationing up to 2,500 Marines at an Australian military base . . . the first 200 to 250 Marines will arrive next year."

"Deploying the contingent in Darwin, on Australia's remote northern coast, gives U.S. planners a way to quickly project power into the crucial sea lanes of the South China Sea and the choke-hold straits near Singapore"

Singapore, Malacca, South China Sea, Spratly Islands, etc. As the demand for oil increases exponentially and the conflicting claims of nations in the area continues without resolution, there is the continued possibility of rising tensions, confrontation, show-down, conflict, WAR!!

The U.S. and others see the American presence in the immediate area as a stabilizing forces, preventing escalating events when they might occur from getting out of hand? A mere presence and a will-to-use creates deterrence! Better a dimes worth of prevention now rather than a dollar worth of cure later? So to speak!

Darwin is a small place and much closer to Asia than to the rest Australia. That presence of the U.S. Marines, even in relatively small numbers, represents a marked change the consequences of which for better or worse at this point cannot be foreseen. I hope this all goes well.

coolbert.