Posted on 07/16/2010 7:10:42 PM PDT by naturalman1975
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is speaking. Officially announces Australian Federal election for 21st August 2010.
Game on!
Thanks. What is the abortion law in Aus?
“Demeaning, no. Saying they are not that important and so not in my consciousness, yes. As for the good friends part, I think I prefer to wait and watch because even the Europeans were good friends one time. Now all they do is hate us.”
WOW !! You must be the product of a public school education....
don’t know whether to laugh or cry....
gotta laugh !!
“Thanks. What is the abortion law in Aus?”
What is your stance? pro life or pro choice...?
You're kidding me, right? Or maybe you are not American. If you have to ask this question on a conservative board, you have no clue what American conservatism is about.
Apparently you were unaware that the Australian election is all about JimWayne.
Hey,we should care for many reasons...one of which is she's a vital Western ally and we must all stick together.Yes,Australia's sparsely populated but then so is Israel (for example).
To give you an idea of how close our two countries are did you know that our First Marine Division has adopted "Waltzing Matilda" (Australia's unofficial national anthem) as their parade theme? Check it out!
As an Aussie, I can see why he's asking the question. It's a perfectly valid question to ask. I think (and hope) he probably now realises that what happens in Australia does matter more than he though - but he wouldn't have known that if he didn't ask the question in the first place. It is a fair question.
If he wasn't aware of it before, that's hardly his fault. How much attention does Australia get in America's news broadcasts? Not a lot.
Why would I, as an Australian, say that it does matter to American what happens? A few reasons - some of which have been touched on here already, because some of you are aware of them. He wasn't - he is now, because he asked.
First reason - we are an American ally. One of your closest and we have been for nearly a century. And we've been an ally even in those cases where America didn't have many - most notably in Iraq in 2003.
Second reason - because the US does have bases here - Pine Gap being the best known. We also have one of NASA's main communication stations here - the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex also known as Tidbindilla. That famous footage of Neil Armstrong stepping down onto the moon and his "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." You got to see that courtesy of the Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes Radio Telescope, based in Australia. I'm sure NASA could have found another way to do things if they'd had to, but ever since you've been going into space, Australia has been part of those missions (there's a great Australian movie called The Dish that revolves around Australia's role in Apollo XI).
Other reasons it matters - the concept of a 'coalition of the willing' which the US used in Iraq was largely developed as a doctrine in international military law (though not invented) by Australia's military intervention in East Timor in 1999 under a conservative Prime Minister (John Howard). In the recent (current) economic crisis, Australia also remains one of America's trading partners with one of the most robust economies in the world (we stayed out of recession) which matters a lot to American exporters.
There are reasons why what happens in Australia does matter to Americans and I hope JimWayne can see that now. But if he hadn't asked, he wouldn't know and that's not his fault - it reflects what American media does. He asked. It's a valid question. I hope he's got some valid answers to it.
Start Googling.
>>>>”Whom should I root for?? Why should I care? Australia is not really an important country. It is sparsely populated.”
Something you should remember for a long time is that A reason you’ve been referenced & engaged in comments in this thread is precisely because Australia and the USA will remain to be allies for a long time, despite domestic, often cultural, and occasional political differences between the two countries.
Even under an Australian Bob Hawke (an Agnostic & Left Wing Australian Prime Minister), Australia remained a staunch ally of USA, and actually & for example supported the USA in “desert Storm i.e. The Gulf War” in Iraq in early 1990’s.
In the current world geo-politics, you may not be surprised how much difference a so-called insignificant, and “sparsely populated country” such as Australia can make and has always made.
Perhaps you are right, we should Not be sending citizens of our “sparsely populated” land to harms ways, but we have done so decades, for the U.S., the U.K., as well as Australia. Regardless of who should become an elected Prime Minister of Australia in 2010.
Alternatively, the USA could go for mightier, over-populated China, et al.
This, definitely, is not a one way street, in pride or arrogance.
Thank you sir. You are absolutely right in your assessment.
Instead of seeing my post as a put-down of Australia which it was not, people should have realized that I was asking for information. The main point of my post was that people making such posts should give more background for people like me. I did not even know that Australians considered conservatism important. Why not just educate me instead of trashing me? That is one of the reasons I come to FR. Telling me to google for the information is to miss the point - why even come to FR, one can just spend time googling. We want to talk to other conservatives and get their opinions which is why we come to FR.
I am willing to support conservatives everywhere, whether the country is an ally or not. Just because some country is under the rule of the left does not mean the conservatives in those countries do not deserve our support.
I guess a few of us (me included) assumed that it was common knowledge here that Australia,although sparsely populated,is a steadfast and vital believer in,and defender of,Western values: peace...freedom...fairness.
Unlike you,perhaps,I'm a bit of a political junkie and have been for years.I also have some up-close-and-personal experience with the country (several visits..a failed attempt to get permission to live there) so it's possible that I know a bit more about the country than many of us.And naturalman *is* correct to point out that Oz doesn't get a lot of press here...apart from Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin.
I thought that you might have been a troll or an "America first...*all* other countries be damned" types.Can't speak for anyone else.
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