Arm-in-arm with US imperialism

The Australian ruling class has specific interests in this struggle. For example, much of Australian defence policy is couched in terms of unspecified threats. They mean China.

Like China, Russia and the US, Australia has its own backyard which it regards as inviolate. Thus the $500 million in "aid" to Papua New Guinea is not humanitarian (although that is the guise all ruling classes use to justify their interventions) but rather an attempt to control a colonial neighbour and prevent China getting a foothold in the region.

Australia's infant imperialism means it has invaded and currently occupies countries in the neighbourhood like the Solomons, East Timor and more subtly PNG, the latter through police and military assistance and public service advisers as well as strings-attached money.

Australia's military adventurism in the region is not mainly about resources (although screwing the East Timorese over oil was part of the invasion agenda). This immediate military presence is one way of countering Chinese influence, extending the economic interests of some sections of the Australian ruling class and showing other countries in the region (especially in South-East Asia) that we have a strong military and are prepared to use it.

Although Australia's military is the third-largest in the Asia-Pacific region after China and Japan, it is not capable of challenging China on its own.

Traditionally Australia's ruling class has sought to meld its interests with those of a major imperialist power. Initially that was Britain. But as its power declined and that of the US grew, our ruling class sought to enmesh the US in the region to provide a defence shield to extend its own power and repulse the so-called longer term threats like Japan and now China.

The ANZUS treaty is central to this strategy of the Australian ruling class to protect and extend its power and influence. Our payment for this treaty is military support for specific American invasions like Vietnam in the past and Afghanistan and Iraq today.

As part of this enmeshment, Australia also allows the US to set up spy bases here to gather intelligence. Information from these bases was vital for example in the invasion of Iraq.

So why Afghanistan? It is not resource rich.

The US invaded the country shortly after September 11 to show the world it would not be pushed around, and to help in the long-term encirclement and containment of Russia and China.

Australia supported the US-dominated UN intervention to buy credibility with the US ruling class and hope to convince them that our interests coincide with theirs, especially in the immediate Asia-Pacific region.

Our ruling class wants to help the US contain China. It wants to buy an insurance policy with the US by supplying troops to Afghanistan.