Australians Aren't Allowed To Know If There Are American Nukes In Australia
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The US government is permitted to have nuclear weapons in Australia. What's more, Australians are not permitted to know whether or not this is happening. What's more, not even Australia's elected senators are permitted to know whether this is happening. It's assumed to be none of Australia's business whether there are foreign nuclear weapons in Australia.
This was clarified during a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday, when Greens senators were condescendingly admonished by the Australian foreign minister for the very normal and appropriate attempt to clarify the government's policy regarding the presence of US armageddon weapons on Australian soil.
ABC News reports:
During a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday Greens senators sought details on whether visiting American aircraft such as the B-52s operating out of the Top End are ever nuclear armed.
The committee was told the United States had a longstanding policy of "neither confirming or denying" the presence of nuclear weapons under its practice of maintaining global operational unpredictability.
US bomber aircraft have been visiting Australia since the early 1980s, with nuclear-capable B-52s and B2 Sprits regularly operating out of northern Australia.
Defence Department secretary Greg Moriarty said the "stationing of nuclear weapons" in Australia was prohibited under the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, but the treaty did not prevent visits by the US bombers.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong was bizarrely hostile toward Senator David Shoebridge's line of questioning on US nuclear weapons in Australia, angrily accusing him of trying to "make a political point" and acting in a way that is not "responsible or fair to the Australian community," just for seeking answers beyond stock "the US can neither confirm nor deny" responses on this extremely important matter.
So there you have it. The US does indeed have permission to bring weapons into Australia which can turn the nation into a nuclear target, and Australians not only have no say in the matter but are also not allowed to know anything about it. It's actually kind of rude and offensive for you to even ask.
Can you imagine if another country tried to do this to the US? Can you imagine how quickly a nation like India or France would be laughed out of the room if they told Washington they want the right to bring nuclear weapons in and out of the continental United States, but it's none of the US's business if they do? Nobody would give it a single thought, because it's understood that the United States is the rightful ruler of this planet.
The Greens delivered a strong response to this whole ordeal, correctly accusing the Australian government of subverting Australian interests to advance US interests.
“The decision for the Australian Government to allow American B-52s into Australia is another clear example of successive major party governments selling out Australian interests for the Americans," said Greens Senator and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Jordon Steele John said in a statement. “Whether it be the AUKUS pact, the coverup of how Australia became involved in the illegal US invasion of Iraq or this newest escalation in the force posture agreement. When it comes to the US, there is no Australian interest this government has not been willing to sell out.
“Australia needs to deeply reevaluate our relationship with the United States and pursue an independent, peaceful and cooperative foreign policy,” the senator added.
This happens as Australians are being manipulated into consenting to war and militarism against China in a shockingly aggressive propaganda campaign spearheaded by our freakishly consolidated news media and think tanks funded by the US power alliance and military industrial complex war profiteers like the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. This propaganda campaign makes no secret of the expectation that Australians should be prepared to pour their wealth and their blood into a future war with China in order to support their good friends the Americans.
Julian Assange — an Australian citizen who has been left to rot in Belmarsh Prison because his own government refuses to back him against the US government's efforts to extradite him for the crime of journalism — said shortly before his arrest, "I love my birth country Australia but as a state it doesn't exist."
As an Australian myself I feel much the same way. We're not a real country. We're a US military/intelligence asset run by a puppet regime who the US government changes and stages blatant coups against whenever it sees fit. This whole continent is basically just a giant US military base with kangaroos.
And now we're being pushed toward a future military confrontation of unimaginable horror, and when anyone in our pretend government objects to this they are chided and dismissed for their lack of loyalty to our glorious leaders in Washington. It would be funny if it wasn't so goddamn terrifying.
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Australia is a puppet state. That an Australian Senator is refused an answer to a simple question and has no recourse simply confirms that someone else other than the titular government is in charge. In this case, that "someone else" is the United States. If it makes you feel any better, the American public doesn't exactly have much more influence over American policy, either.
Hell, Congress, the body nominally in charge of making U.S. laws, isn’t even allowed to know the budgets of the various alphabet agencies.
It seems that the U.S. empire excels at is exploiting and disrespecting the nations we call allies. Wasn't it Kissinger who claimed we should do better? His quote from the Vietnam War era was meant to be cautionary but ended up being predictive: "it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."