U.S., Australia to Share Missile Defense

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- The United States and Australia signed an agreement Wednesday that provides for future cooperation on missile defense development.

A Pentagon statement the agreement signed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Australian counterpart, Robert Hill, also calls for testing and the potential for joint operations in the future.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-australia,0,3287583.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[CHIMO]

1. Missile defence a done deal

f Mr. Graham does stay on the job, his first major responsibility will be to sell a decision that has already been taken: to join the U.S. government formally in establishing a continental missile-defence program.

The outspoken Mr. Cellucci appears to have been kept out of the loop in this instance. Reliable sources report that the deal has been concluded and the Americans know that Canada intends to sign. The Liberals, however, wanted to keep the issue as dormant as possible until after the election, while to sign right now would suggest that the deal was sitting there, waiting to be inked as soon as the voters had made their choice. For those reasons, the formal announcement will not come until September or October.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040707/IBBITS07//

Why am I getting this feeling of being screwed.

[salib]

2. This just makes Australia a target

Why do they want to get into the "arms race" anywhere? This way, we will not even have "On the Beach."

[rooboy]

4. It's like walking into The Twilight Zone...

where one day your little out-of-the-way country is now standing at the front, threatening the rest of the world. Of course the difference between the US and Australia is that Australia can defend its borders for about 20 minutes.

[MasonJar]

3. Now we know what the taxpayers gave Howard in exchange for

his troops.

[mom cat]

5. Signed before the election. Now I know why Bush&co have been

being so vocal about Austrailian politics. Wonder what Aussies are thinking?

[struggle4progress]

6. Another scam: It's never worked and it never will.

But the aerospace industry will get billions from the taxpayers. :grr: