Everyone Loves an Empire

Can you hear the barbarians at the gate? It's a little hard in Canada and we often assume that our local barbarians are Americans or Albertans. But in Australia they can hear them loud and clear and they're scared. Little wonder that the Aussies are practicing a little preemption of their own in their neighbourhood.

This week Australia sent a contingent of commandos to East Timor to apparently restore order. East Timor is suffering from a common condition of former conflict zones; sacked soldiers are angry about being booted from the security forces given that their talents are no longer in demand. First of all there are no jobs and second even if there were what do you put on your resume: your proficiency with weapons of all kinds, your extensive torture experience? Unfortunately given these young men's skills with small arms and light weapons, they are highly talented in disrupting the everyday functioning of a modern state. The Australian commandos plan to explain to them the futility of their actions, while protecting anyone with milky white skin and Australian interests in the country.

This new mission builds on Australia's foreign adventures both as a leader in the unstable Solomon Islands and as a follower in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What do the Australians hope to achieve beyond maintaining their position of economic and military power in the region? For one thing, they'll keep all these poor, illiterate and dirty brown people from jumping a boat to their country and claiming political asylum. Under international law, it would be illegal to send them back to a conflict zone where they could be harmed or worse. So Australian troops are immediately dispatched to quell all instability in the region, thus preventing boatloads of unfortunate people from reaching Australian shores with a justifiable reason to stay. Australia for Australians, whatever that means.

Regrettably I have no doubt that Canadians would behave just as our Australian cousins if faced with the same circumstances. Thankfully all our barbarians have decent jobs--but for how long?