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| Support Ship Skandi Bergen |
By Sam Bateman & Anthony Bergin
In all the discussion concerning thecontingent of some 200 U.S. marines arriving in Darwin, a force that will plateau to around 2,500 by 2016 to 17, and the enhanced military use of the Cocos Islands, there’s been a fundamental issue missing from Australia’s national strategic debate: how does the Australian military’s core business extend beyond the war fighting mission.
Chief of the Australian Army Gen. David Morrison recently observed that he agreed with writer George Santayana, “that only the dead have seen an end to war.”
Morrison noted that (PDF) the fundamental force development principle is that military operations against a credible, technologically enabled opponent – possessing war fighting capabilities similar to our own – must remain the foundation of all planning.
Read the full story at The Diplomat