6d ago

Why are Canada and Australia following the US to war?

The CAF deployed 600 personnel, a warship, a maritime helicopter, and three warplanes to Australia on July 13 to participate in the Talisman Sabre war exercise, which will run until August 4. Talisman Sabre is a biennial, massive-scale joint military exercise seemingly designed to flex member countries’ military might against superpowers like the PRC as global tensions rise. Australia and the US have been running the Talisman Sabre exercise every other year since 2005, but this year’s is set to be the largest yet – representing a grand total of 19 countries and 35,000 personnel, running from July 13 to August 4.

Such large-scale military operations as those on display under Talisman Sabre would constitute a gross and wholly avoidable escalation of current tensions in the South China Sea, as former Australian Ambassador to the Philippines and to South Korea, Mack Williams, wrote in 2017 The US' FONOP program in the South China Sea has been systematically proven ineffective and even counter-productive, serving only to provoke Chinese hostility, precluding diplomatic engagement.

18 comments

They're not following the US to war. WTF kind of headline is this? It's just practice, no?
- The author is focused on China-Canada stories. I'm willing to wager a 30-something polysci graduate doesn't know much about military functionality.
  Considering we used to do joint military exercises with the USA... balking at Canadians training with Australia sounds suspiciously like something 'Winnie The Pooh' would say.
  
  They aren't just joining Australia. USA, and 16 other countries are participating as well.
- Why do we need to "practice" in the South China Sea? How would we react if another country sailed their military up to the coast of BC?
  
  Maybe if China wasn't threatening the sovereignty of every nation in the area and being agressive against any other vessel, this wouldn't be a big deal.
  Maybe this exercise will cool their jets.
- Whether left or right, they want you to believe their nonsense.
Me: I should read more alternative journalism.
Me, after reading several paragraphs of impressively foolish and ignorant writing: Allrighty, mainstream journalism, I was wrong and I apologize.
I know someone who has participated in Talisman Sabre as a CAF member and ultimately it is a signal to China that they cannot quietly absorb other countries like Taiwan without the rest of the world knowing or acting. It is a not an act of war, it is an act of assertion of rights and boundaries for other countries who we are allied with, along with useful training for our military.
This is not a statement of right or wrong, just what one member has expressed to me as the purpose,
China keeps taking inches and miles in the South China Sea, and provokes other countries to the brink of war, but that's all supposed to be ignored so China gets what it wants.
- Alliance bad, China good
- How many aircraft carriers and military bases does the US have?
  But I guess they are the good guys so its okay?
  
  Both China and the US can be terrible. It's not mutually exclusive.
China has aggressively acted towards neighbouring countries, redrawing borders and setting up for outright occupation. Assuming that now is not the time of military unity is reckless and dangerous. Yes we do have other problems we need to tackle but even if we do tackle them and not China expansionist politics we soon will find ourselves outgunned and with no allies. It's a tough call but oversimplifying it down to "we don't need to spend more on military" is very uninformed.

18 comments