Pressed by the US to send more military assets to the Middle East for the ISIS war, Australia has declined, telling the US that they believe their contributions are already “substantial” and sufficient.
The Australian government issued a statement saying that they informed US Defense Secretary Ash Carter that existing contributions would continue, that they still intend to follow through on planned additional troops at the coalition command headquarters, and are open to significant new humanitarian operations in the area.
Australia was reportedly one of about 40 nations approached recently by the US and pressed to pony up more forces for the war, Given the recent lack of announcements of escalations by anyone but the US themselves, it seems they are finding few takers.
Former Australian DM Kevin Andrews was harshly critical of the current government for declining the request, saying he believes Australia should accept any “reasonable request” made by the US, and that everyone knew requests for boots on the ground were coming.
The inevitable outcome of an open ended and ill conceived foreign policy that has no clearly defined goals. It is a true measure of how ineptly U.S. foreign policy has been managed, when even steadfast allies like the Australians won’t commit troops.
We have foolishly committed troops and we’ve been bombing. We’ve just declined to commit more.
Our government are still committed lap puppies of the US though.
To commit more war crimes.
Ha…reminds me of that old Vietnam protester/peacenik question: “what if they had a war and no one came?”