Here in northern Aust, there's currently ongoing debate re the pros and cons of allowing the US to establish a largescale joint military training facility and strategic storage area for US forces in the Pacific, with some unpleasant elements attracted recently with an allegation that 3 US sailors from the last USN flotilla which visited Darwin, sexually assaulted 2 local young women. This fact has been used by certain anti-US elements to categorically deny the viability of Aust allowing the US to establish any permanent military facility up here, despite the significant eco benefits of having US servicemen on R-and-R here (it's like when the Navy and Marines come into town, Darwin resembles an American city, with all the offduty servicemen having the run of the place- yeah, I see so many around the place myself when the ships come in).
Could anybody consider a POD in the last 50 yrs which'd entail the US actually being able to establish some sorta permanent military base in northern Aust, to a similar extent as Clark field and Subic Bay naval base in the Philippines ? There's also been controversy on this topic from way back, 1 example being in 1981 where the Aust govt granted the USAF permission for B52s to land in Darwin, which caused the Soviet Union to threaten that Aust was exposing itself to nuclear attack in the event of fullscale nuclear exchange, with similar arguments re the Pine Gap satellite-tracking station near Alice Springs.
Could anybody consider a POD in the last 50 yrs which'd entail the US actually being able to establish some sorta permanent military base in northern Aust, to a similar extent as Clark field and Subic Bay naval base in the Philippines ? There's also been controversy on this topic from way back, 1 example being in 1981 where the Aust govt granted the USAF permission for B52s to land in Darwin, which caused the Soviet Union to threaten that Aust was exposing itself to nuclear attack in the event of fullscale nuclear exchange, with similar arguments re the Pine Gap satellite-tracking station near Alice Springs.