Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:26:27 +1000 (EST)
Subject: Re: AUT: Australia's Vietnam


You do talk utter rubbish sometimes George.

George Pennefather wrote:

[...]
>It is questionable whether the forces currently on hand will prove
>>sufficient to establish control over East Timor. The upshot may be a
>rather messy and ongoing affair --perhaps even Canberra's Vietnam.

"Australia's Vietnam" was Vietnam itself George, Australia went "all the
way with LBJ", remember? East Timor is more like *Indonesia's* Vietnam, if
you want to use that analogy.



[...]

>Under such circumstances domestic unrest may break out --already the
>situation has led to protests within Australia that have not been, I would
>say, witnessed there for some time.

Those protests were calling *for* Australian intervention in East Timor
George. Public outrage over the brutality of the Indonesian occupation and
the murderous rampage of the Indonesian-backed militas after the clear vote
for independence was instrumental in forcing the Australian government to
reverse it's policy on East Timor and offer to send in peace-keepers.

Before that, Australian government's (Both Labor and Liberal) had long
supported the Indonesian annexation of the former Portugese colony. In fact
Australia was the only country to recognise Indonesian sovereignty there.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas




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