I imagine they're getting paid in the larger sense.
However, it occurs to me that this whole business about Australia is ridiculous. Nothing has changed. After the battle of Guadalcanal, which meant the Japanese were not going to get there, Australia has been a dependent colony of the United States. Wherever English-speaking White people are gathered together, there you will inevitably find the US for racial reasons, but on the other hand it is yet one more thing for the US to defend in a darkening world. Someday the Chinese or the Indonesians or the Indians will come for the poor Ozzies, but they might as well enjoy their nuclear submarines until then.
I imagine they're getting paid in the larger sense.
However, it occurs to me that this whole business about Australia is ridiculous. Nothing has changed. After the battle of Guadalcanal, which meant the Japanese were not going to get there, Australia has been a dependent colony of the United States. Wherever English-speaking White people are gathered together, there you will inevitably find the US for racial reasons, but on the other hand it is yet one more thing for the US to defend in a darkening world. Someday the Chinese or the Indonesians or the Indians will come for the poor Ozzies, but they might as well enjoy their nuclear submarines until then.