Kinda hope Indo does so we have an excuse to beat the shit outta them, maybe then they'll shut the fuck up.

Edit: A condition for the peace treaty would be that they accept all asylum seekers. Would be glorious.

Edited by 433: 22/11/2013 08:19:25 PM

Kinda hope Indo does so we have an excuse to beat the shit outta them, maybe then they'll shut the fuck up.

Edit: A condition for the peace treaty would be that they accept all asylum seekers. Would be glorious.

Edited by 433: 22/11/2013 08:19:25 PM

A war with Indonesia would be a fucking disaster. Their army is nine times the size of ours. Though our has roughly triple the funding.

A war with Indonesia would be a fucking disaster. Their army is nine times the size of ours. Though our has roughly triple the funding.

Australia couldn't defeat them in their own country, but Indonesia wouldn't be able to even get here, the RAAF and navy would have a field day with theirs and we could cripple their economy and military through our Air Force alone.

Any attack on Australia is an attack on NATO+Singapore+ Malaysia and the sheep anyway, which is more than a disaster for Indonesia.

Anyway no one wants a war except a few dickheads.

Indonesia only have 53 fighter planes in service (Aus have 100+ from memory) and that would be over pretty quickly but the sheer size of the Indonesian ground attack would make it difficult to defend. Don't forget, THEY'RE A COUNTRY OF ISLANDS and are well prepared to move soldiers accordingly - they have some big ass Amphibious Warfare ships.

I think they would find it difficult to cross, especially if Australia has air superiority. In the age of spy satellites, it would be pretty hard for them to hide such a massive movement of ships even when they're docked.

Either way Australia wouldn't be alone which makes it impossible to cross, which makes such an event highly unlikely.

If Indonesia continue to deteriorate relations than I wouldn't be surprised if we cut aid.

You forget that Indonesia are close allies with China and that doesn't bode well either.

You forget that China relies on our mineral exports.

Can't see China interfering, they've made a good habit of not interfering in other nations wars, where as the U.S. is binded by treaty to help Australia. Also I think our relationship is a lot closer to th U.S. then what Indonesia is to China, again such a war be pointless to China as well as Indonesia which have strong growing economies.

In conventional warfare China is also completely outclassed by U.S, the U.S. carrier groups are navies in their own right. We do military drills with China;)

China respects territorial integrity/state sovereignty so there's no chance they'll interfere. That's why they keep vetoing resolutions on intervention in Darfur.

Protesting Pakistanis block NATO supply route
Thousands temporarily force road closure to express outrage over deadly US drone strikes they say violate sovereignty.

Thousands of people protesting US drone strikes have blocked a road in northwest Pakistan that is used to transport NATO troop supplies and equipment in and out of Afghanistan.

Imran Khan, a Pakistani politician and former cricket star, led the protest in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that his Tehreek-e-Insaf party governs, and called on federal officials to take a firmer stance to force the US to end deadly drone attacks and block NATO supplies across the country.

"We will put pressure on America, and our protest will continue if drone attacks are not stopped,'' Khan told the protesters, who dispersed after his speech.

The US Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on the protest that closed a route leading to one of two border crossings used to send supplies overland from Pakistan to neighbouring Afghanistan where the US leads the coalition of NATO troops battling the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The protest was likely to have more symbolic value than practical impact, because there is normally little NATO supply traffic on the road on Saturdays.

Growing friction

Drone strikes have been a growing source of friction between Islamabad and Washington.

Khan and other officials regularly denounce the attacks as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, although the country's government is known to have supported some of the strikes in the past.

The protest came only two days after a rare US drone strike outside of Pakistan's remote tribal region killed five people, including at least three Afghan fighters, at an Islamic seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The attack outraged Pakistani officials, as did one on November 1 that killed the former leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, a day before the Pakistani government said it was going to invite him to hold peace talks.

Khan pushed the Pakistani government to block NATO supplies after the strike on Mehsud, but it has shown little interest in doing so.

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, has been a vocal critic of drone strikes, but he has also said he values the country's relationship with the US.

Sharif pushed US President Barack Obama to end drone strikes in a visit to Washington in October, but the US government has shown no indication that it intends to stop using a tool that it sees as vital to battling al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Obama: Iran nuclear deal limits ability to create nuclear weapons

Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) -- [Breaking news update, 11:19 p.m. ET]
-- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the six-month deal rolls back Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium and increases the time Iran would need to develop a nuclear weapon.

-- Kerry said Iran will have "zero" 20 percent enriched uranium in six months under the deal announced Sunday.

-- Kerry said Iran has "agreed to unprecedented international monitoring" of its nuclear program. "This first step, let me be clear, does not say that Iran has a right to enrich uranium." Contradicting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Kerry also said the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons does not grant Iran the right to enriched uranium.

-- Kerry said the easing of controls on Iran's "restricted oil revenues" during the six-month nuclear agreement announced Sunday does not roll back the "vast majority of the sanctions that are currently in place."

-- Kerry said the alternative to the deal with Iran on its nuclear program would be further development of Iran's nuclear capabilities. He said no world power represented in the new deal believes Iran would capitulate in the face of unrelenting sanctions.

-- Kerry said Iran must prove its peaceful intentions with actions, not words. He said President Barack Obama will not take military force "off the table," but he said war would not be a lasting solution.

-- Kerry said the deal announced Sunday is "a serious step" toward answering the world's questions about Iran's nuclear intentions.

-- Kerry calls the nuclear deal a rollback of that nation's nuclear program and a first step toward "a comprehensive agreement that will make Israel and the rest of the world safer.

-- Kerry: "We need to set about the critical task of proving to the world what Iran has said many times -- that its program is in fact peaceful." The top U.S. diplomat said the initial agreement creates "time and space" to allow Iran to demonstrate its peaceful intentions.
[Previous version published at 10:49 p.m. ET]

(CNN) -- A historic deal was struck early Sunday between Iran and six world powers over Tehran's nuclear program that freezes the country's nuclear development program in exchange for lifting some sanction while a more formal agreement is worked out.

The agreement -- described as an "initial, six-month" deal -- includes "substantial limitations that will help prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a nationally televised address.

The deal, which capped days of marathon talks, addresses Iran's ability to enrich uranium, what to do about its existing enriched uranium stockpiles, the number and potential of its centrifuges and Tehran's "ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium using the Arak reactor," according to a statement released by the White House.

Iran also agreed to provide "increased transparency and intrusive monitoring of its nuclear program," it said.

Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, formally announced the agreement in Geneva where the foreign ministers representing Iran, the United States, Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany were meeting.

The Iran nuclear deal is a first step requiring actions by both sides, which have "a strong commitment to negotiate a final comprehensive solution," Ashton said.

According to a statement released by the White House, the deal halts Tehran's nuclear program, including halting the development at the Arak reactor and requiring all of the uranium enriched to 20% -- close to weapons-grade -- to be diluted so it cannot be converted for military purposes.
But there were conflicting reports about whether Iran's right to enrich uranium had been recognized.

The senior administration official said the deal does not recognize the right, while Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi -- on a Twitter feed commonly attributed to him by Iranian media -- said that "our enrichment program was recognized."
"Congratulation(s) to my nation which stood tall and resisted for the last 10 years," Araghchi said in the post.

For years, Iran and Western powers have left negotiating tables in disagreement, frustration and at times open animosity.

But the diplomatic tone changed with the transfer of power after Iran's election this year, which saw President Hassan Rouhani replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Caustic jabs at the United States and bellicose threats toward Israel were a hallmark of Ahmadinejad's foreign policy rhetoric.
He lambasted the West over the economic sanctions crippling Iran's economy and at the same time, pushed the advancement of nuclear technology in Iran.

Rouhani has struck up a more conciliatory tone and made the lifting sanctions against his country a priority.

Despite the sanctions, Iran today has 19,000 centrifuges and is building more advanced ones, according to Mark Hibbs, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Most world powers believe that Iran could not realistically build a usable bomb in less than a year, Hibbs said.
And Iran recently signed a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency that agrees to give the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency access to long-unseen nuclear sites, including a heavy-water reactor in Arak.

Tehran is also a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which requires it not to create nuclear weapons or enable other countries to obtain them.

Jim Sciutto is in Geneva, and Chelsea J. Carter reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Ben Brumfield, Alexander Fenton and Shirley Henry contributed to this report.

Egypt declares Turkish envoy unwelcome -- Turkey responds in kind
By Susannah Cullinane, CNN
November 24, 2013 -- Updated 0815 GMT (1615 HKT)

(CNN) -- The Turkish and Egyptian governments engaged in a round of tit-for-tat diplomacy Saturday, with Egypt first expelling Ankara's ambassador and Turkey reciprocating.
Cairo blamed its decision to declare Turkish Ambassador Huseyin Avni Botsali "persona non grata" -- or unwelcome -- on Ankara's interference in its domestic affairs, Turkey's Anadolu Agency news outlet said.

Turkey accused Egypt of not respecting "the will of the people," downgraded its diplomatic relationship with Cairo, and declared its ambassador unwelcome. Cairo had lowered its diplomatic representation in Turkey to the level of charge d'affaires and withdrew its ambassador in August.

The diplomatic spat is the latest sign of a worsening relationship between the two nations and one that an analyst said vividly illustrated Turkey's "growing isolation in the Middle East."

The relationship between the countries went sour after the Egyptian military in July ousted President Mohamed Morsy and his government.

Morsy, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, had close ties with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

After it toppled Morsy, Egypt banned the brotherhood's activities and froze its finances.
Erdogan -- who was accorded a hero's welcome when he visited post-revolution Cairo in late 2011 -- has spoken out strongly against Egypt's post-Morsy leadership.

Fadi Hakura from the London think-tank Chatham House told CNN that Saturday's events were "a vivid illustration of Turkey's growing isolation in the Middle East."

"There's a perception gaining ground in the region that the Turkish government is allied to the Muslim Brotherhood and that its foreign policy is defined by sectarian priorities," Hakura said.

"Turkey has tense relations with Israel, the neighboring countries -- Iran, Syria and Iraq -- the majority of the Gulf Arab states and Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Jordan," he said.
Hakura said U.S. President Barack Obama also was deeply unhappy with Turkish foreign policy in the region.

"Since early August there has been no telephone contact between the U.S. President and Turkish Prime Minister and that's a reflection in part with Turkey's deepening isolation in the Middle East and also frustration in Ankara at Obama's reluctance to get involved in the conflict in Syria," he said.

Hakura said while tensions between Cairo and Ankara would not have a major impact on Turkish-U.S. relations, "what these events do is reduce the importance of Turkey to U.S. foreign policy calculations."

It is a shift from 2012, when Erdogan told an audience at his party conference -- that included then-President Morsy -- that Turkey was a role model for regional democratic Islamist movements in the wake of the Arab Spring.

"This understating that we have put forth has gone beyond our borders and has practically become an example to all Muslim countries," Erdogan said.

Last month Suat Kiniklioglu, a former lawmaker from Erdogan's AKP party, also warned that Turkey needed to reprioritize its foreign policy objectives in the Middle East after suffering serious setbacks in the region in recent months.

"Egypt is a key actor in the Middle East. There is a clear need to calibrate the language directed at Cairo, as well," Kiniklioglu wrote in the English language Today's Zaman newspaper.

"The falling out with Israel, the Arab Spring and especially the civil war in Syria have radically altered Turkey's position in the region," he said. "The coup in Egypt has added insult to injury. Consequently, Turkey is confronted with significant challenges on all fronts in the region."

CNN's Ivan Watson and Gul Tuysuz contributed to this report.

Why does a man like Mugabe get to keep all faculties until he is 89? A long healthy life to a man like him does not seem right.

I dont remotely trust Iran. Theyre hiding something.

Pope Francis calls for major changes in Roman Catholic Church

November 26, 2013 -- Updated 1515 GMT (2315 HKT)
(CNN) -- Pope Francis on Tuesday called for major changes in the Roman Catholic Church -- from the top down -- saying he knows it will be a messy business but he expects his flock to dive in feet-first.

"I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," the Pope said Tuesday in a major new address.

"I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures."

The Pope's address, called an "apostolic exhortation," is basically a pep talk from the throne of St. Peter. Officially known in Latin as "Evangelii Gaudium," (The Joy of the Gospel) the 85-page document is the first official papal document written entirely by Francis.

I find it kind of odd that the cardinals elected a pope who's such a reformist.

Argentina threatens companies over Falklands oil drilling



(CNN) -- Argentina intends to go after companies drilling for oil off the disputed Falkland Islands, triggering a fresh diplomatic row with Britain.
The Latin American country's Congress passed a law Thursday threatening "criminal sanctions" on companies and individuals involved in "the illegal exploration" of hydrocarbons in the area, the Argentine Embassy in London said in a prepared statement.

"The law provides for prison sentences for the duration of up to 15 years; fines equivalent to the value of 1.5 million barrels of oil; the banning of individuals and companies from operating in Argentina; and the confiscation of equipment and any hydrocarbons that would have been illegally extracted," it said.

In response, the British Foreign Office said: "The UK government unequivocally supports the right of the Falkland Islanders to develop their natural resources for their own economic benefit.

"Argentine domestic law does not apply to the Falkland Islands or South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are UK overseas territories."
It said hydrocarbon activities by companies operating on the continental shelf of the Falkland Islands were regulated by legislation of the Falkland Islands government and in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Argentine Embassy said it had already sent more than 200 letters to companies directly or indirectly involved in drilling activities, warning that they are "liable to administrative, civil and criminal actions in accordance with the laws governing such activities, including environmental protection laws."

Argentina and Great Britain went to war over the territory in 1982 after the then-military government in Argentina landed troops on the islands, which Argentinians call Las Malvinas.

Argentina says its death toll from the conflict was around 645. Britain, then under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has reported 255 civilian and military deaths.

Earlier this year, residents of the Falklands Islands voted to remain a British overseas territory.

Thx 443.