Defense Analysis: The threat of USA Military Base in Darwin, Australia

The threat of USA Military Base in Darwin, Australia

by David King Marpaung S. M. Def IP **

(Recommendation Paper)

U.S. President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Gillard announced that the U.S. will add strength marines from initially 250 to 2,500 personnel by 2012. Obama explained that the area is very important such as one of the busiest seaways in the world to support economic activity in the region. For Obama, the position of Darwin as a city located in northern Australia is very strategic, especially because of some critical events such as the Bali bombings, tsunami in Aceh, and also conflict in East Timor at the past.

Construction of military bases in Darwin is not exactly a strange thing and suddenly happen. Since the 1970s, Darwin Australia is the United States intelligence base for the Asia Pacific region. It is, is because the China economically and military become strong and stronger recently, and American forces increasingly unpopular in Japan and South Korea. With the rampant cases of rape by U.S. soldiers in Japan and Korea, as well as horizontal conflicts that often occur, it will be ensured for the long-term U.S. "forced" to relocate its troops from both countries.

From the standpoint of defense and security, development bases in Darwin will change the map of power in the Asia Pacific region, and of course also Southeast Asia, where U.S. troops will be able to get to the entire region in just a matter of minutes to two hours. In particular, this U.S. action got negative hints from Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. In his speech when speaking in the opening of the ASEAN-China Summit, Wen said that China and ASEAN countries have agreed to implement the Declaration Follow-Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, so it does not need any outside force to intervene in this area [1].

Threat To Indonesia
Darwin's position is only 280 km from Indonesia, should have become a serious threat to Indonesian without any reason and exception. In a short time, U.S. troops could be in parts of Indonesia to conduct of intelligence operations and military activities. It is conceivable, with weapon superiority that owned by US Armed Forces, it is not difficult for U.S. troops to conduct military operations same as in Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc..

For Indonesia, the placement of United States Marines in Darwin is urgent to critisize necesarry. Because it can amplify the power of Uncle Sam's military forces to respond to instability in Southeast Asia, particularly in Eastern Indonesia. The real reason is, without any Marines personnel placement 2500, Washington has Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) and Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) that already ready to respond to instability in Indonesia, including in parts of Indonesia .

Today, the problem of re-sticking Papua. US have very big interest with Freeport company at there. Lots of attack by separatist were happen there. In short, Jakarta was forced to be able to maintain the security of Washington's investment in the region's rich natural resources. If not, the United States will not hesitate to use military force to secure its interests there.
Indonesia is required to maintain stability in the eastern region. If it can be implemented, the United States military intervention can be minimized. Intervention than 2,500 personnel including Marines based in Darwin later

Facts of Sovereignity violations by U.S

The placement of a total of 2500 U.S. Marines in Australia raises some concerns. Even in Indonesia there are a number of parties which relate to the conflict in Papua. But Ambassador (Ambassador) to Indonesia Scot Marciel U.S. insisted that such concerns are unfounded. He asserted that the U.S. government's attitude since the first is to support the sovereignty of Indonesia [2].But is it so, the latest facts and instead asserted that the U.S. is a lot of activities and operations that violate the sovereignty of a country. In the case of hunting Osama bin Laden, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden has the U.S. violated the sovereignty of Pakistan [3]. He said it was the first time the U.S. government has acted completely independent of the government of Pakistan in gathering intelligence and willingness to act alone in Pakistan.
In the case of the Libyan attack by USA and NATO, this operation does not obtain prior permission from the UN. However, the U.S. continue to send troops by reason of "humanity" to save the citizens of Libya from the Gaddafi regime. But what actually happened after Libya's Gaddafi has successfully overthrown by a syndicate is a "rape" by imperialist forces determined to seize the oil wealth and transform the region into a neo-colonial basis for further intervention operations throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

In addition to the facts in Pakistan and Libya, many facts which show that U.S. foreign policy is not to uphold the sovereignty of a country, but to put forward the national interest as a super power that can dictate the economic and political conditions globally.

The Failure of Indonesian Government
By looking at the potential threat that exists, but it seems the Government of Indonesia to act like an ass. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono welcomed the opening of the United States military bases in Darwin, Australia. This attitude was made after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated that the opening of military bases on its territory in order to respond quickly to address natural disasters that often occur in East Asia including Australia. [4] The attitude of President of this childlike innocent who offered candy poisoned by his friend. How Could Yudhoyono make blunder like this, as presiden that have military background, he do not view the existence of military bases in Darwin as a threat sebuagh
The same foolishnees is also expressed by the Armed Forces Commander Admiral Agus Suhartono that states, the placement of U.S. bases in Darwin Australia is not a threat. It is also not directly related to the political situation in Papua and Indonesia in general [5]. According Suhartono, President of the United States and Prime Minister of Australia said the deployment was to assist disaster management in Asia.

Policy Recommendations

To emulate or build up a bargaining position, then Indonesia must build defense cooperation with other Asean countries. However this is very difficult to do with Singapore which is a major supplier of U.S. logistics in the Asia Pacific region. Wide in Singapore harbor purposely built to meet the needs of the U.S. shipping fleet. Dengandemikian Indonesia can only hope that in Thailand, the Philippines, and possibly Malaysia. However, this coalition will ultimately only be bluffing because it does not have sufficient military power compared to U.S. forces
Indonesia will eventually be forced U.S. become ally , or choose China. Based on projections for the current state of scientific engineering in the Asia Pacific region, the longest in 20 years, US-China conflict would no longer inevitable in this region.Therefore the position of Indonesia must be clear to the front, denagan calculating all the risk factors and benefit
Indonesia attractive wing of cooperation with India and Russia. If granted a guarantee of security of both countries, U.S. forces would certainly think many times to perform an operation in Indonesia