Fuck Current - Obama Increases Troops in Australia

I had high hopes for current but what the FUCK?! Why is no one talking about this?!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/obama-rallies-australian-troops-around-new-u...

DARWIN, Australia — The 1,700 troops, dressed in fatigues, stood expectantly Thursday as the commander-in-chief took the podium and gave them a rallying cry.

“I want to hear it, so let me say it first: Auzzy, Auzzy, Auzzy!” President Obama chanted, drawing an identical response.

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On a visit to Darwin, where some of the U.S. Marines bound for Australia will be based, President Obama spoke to U.S. and Australian troops about a shared purpose of the preservation of peace and security. (Nov. 17)
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Underscoring growing concern over an aggressive China, President Obama announced a new agreement Wednesday to expand the U.S. military presence in Australia. (Nov. 16)
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These weren’t Obama’s forces; they were Australian soldiers from the Royal Army Air Force Base, where the president stopped for a brief visit at the end of a two-day stop Down Under.

But there was good reason these troops were responding to the U.S. president: They will soon be part of a new partnership with the United States after Obama announced Wednesday that he is sending 250 Marines here next summer to begin company rotations of six months.

The expanded partnership is the first step in the Obama administration’s foreign policy shift away from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the U.S. is winding down, to economic growth and security in the Asia Pacific region.

The president was eager to sell his vision to the Australian public in speeches before Parliament in Canberra and here at the Darwin base.

In his brief remarks to the soldiers, Obama paid tribute to the two countries’ 60-year alliance, which began in World War II. And he noted that it was in Darwin, which he called “Australia’s Pearl Harbor,” where U.S. and Australian troops suffered heavy losses after being bombed by Japanese fighters. The USS Peary battleship was sunk off the coast of this base in Australia’s remote Northern Territory.

Obama cited the partnership between the two nations in Iraq and Afghanistan and stated: “Now, here in Darwin and Northern Australia, we’ll write the next proud chapter in our alliance.”

The soldiers cheered him heartily.

Earlier, as the crowd waited for Obama to arrive in Darwin, an Australian military band, rocking out on a saxophone, keyboard and other instruments, played a series of American pop hits, including “You Can’t Hurry Love,” by the Supremes, and “Mustang Sally,” popularized by Wilson Pickett.

Obama administration officials have characterized the new partnership with Australia as an opportunity for combined arms training, along with disaster relief and humanitarian aid mission exercises. The number of Marines rotating through Australia will eventually grow to 2,500 and they will be housed at Australian facilities, officials said.

Brigadier Gen. Ronald Baczkowski said Thursday that about 55 Marines from Norfolk arrived at Darwin this week to work on small-arms training and infantry maneuvers.

“The concept of a rotational force is not new,” Baczkowski said. “It’s just taken to the next step.”

Yet the agreement has alarmed Chinese officials. Though the number of troops that will be stationed here is small, the move has been accompanied by tougher rhetoric from Obama toward China. The president said at a regional economic forum last weekend in Hawaii that China must “play by the rules” on the international stage.

In his speech before Parliament in Canberra, before he left for Darwin, Obama said he made a deliberate decision for the United States to play a “larger and long-term” role in shaping the future of the region.

Of China, Obama said all nations have an interest in the rise of a “peaceful and prosperous China. That’s why the United States welcomes it. ... We will seek more cooperation with Beijing.”

But Obama added that the United States will “speak candidly to Beijing about the importance of upholding international norms and the respect for the basic universal human rights of the Chinese people.”

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were effusive in their praise for Obama and the United States, saying they welcomed the expanded military alliance even though China is now Australia’s largest trading partner.

“American world leadership may only be truly appreciated when it’s gone,” Abbott said. “None of us want to find out the hard way what a shrunken America looks like. A strong America means a safer world.”

In the end, Obama made the case that America’s presence as a strong “Pacific nation” will help ensure that certain human rights that he said “stir in every human heart” — freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and the freedom of citizens to choose their own leaders — will be maintained.

“This is the future we seek in the Asia Pacific — security, prosperity and dignity for all,” Obama said. “That’s what we stand for. That’s who we are. That’s the future we will pursue, in partnership with allies and friends, and with every element of American power. So let there be no doubt: In the Asia Pacific in the 21st century, the United States of America is all in.”