🇦🇺@JPMasters 'Strive for Equity' (He/Him/They)

John Menadue: AUKUS: Australians paying to defend the US homeland pearlsandirritations.com/pos… 'Secrecy is the hallmark of AUKUS. At no stage in the negotiations was the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade involved. It was deliberately excluded. Not only was DFAT excluded, but the Department of Defence was also largely excluded. A former deputy secretary of Defence, Hugh White, said that AUKUS is “barking mad, this won’t work”. 'The Australian government also misleads us that Australia will retain legal command over our AUKUS fleet. Nuclear submarines are technologically complex machines. We do not have the domestic-industrial base to maintain them alone. If we were to assert Australian control, contrary to US wishes, Washington could simply withhold critical spare parts and specialised software. Without US logistical support, the AUKUS fleet would be inoperable. Furthermore, to track Chinese submarines, the RAN would have to rely on highly classified US satellite networks, undersea sensor grids, and data relay systems. If Australia chose to act against US strategic interests, the US would immediately cut off all that support. Our AUKUS submarines would become dead assets.' 'Richard Marles is digging us deeper and deeper into this quagmire. He glories in photographs taken with himself and the weirdo secretary of war, Hegseth, in the Pentagon. These are dark days for the assertion of our national interest. And very dark days if you are a friend or ally of the United States. And all the legacy media, without exception, have failed to seriously examine AUKUS.'