Australia’s deep military and political ties with the UAE expose it to risk while aligning with an autocratic partner.

The fragile and the artificial monarchies of the Gulf are sitting ducks.

That includes our military ‘partner’, the UAE

There is a spread of US bases right across the Gulf. The Gulf countries are paying the price as US vassals.

Our government tells us that with our military involvement in the UAE we are there to defend our Gulf partners and that we are not involved in “offensive operations”. That is nonsense. We are actively involved in supporting the United States and Israel in the attacks on Iran. And in all US wars, Pine Gap provides the intelligence to enable precision US missile attacks.

Our government was the first country in the world to support the US-Israeli attack on Iran. Yet a fortnight later Anthony Albanese complained that the malignant narcissist Donald Trump had not explained what his objectives were in his attack on Iran. Go figure out that contradiction! Then we had the threadbare excuse that Australia was the first to support the American attack on Iran only because of the date line!

As described in Responsible Statecraft by Saha Khan the United States maintains a dense network of military facilities across the Gulf. The US Navy’s fifth fleet is headquartered in Bahrain. The air base in Qatar is the largest facility in the region serving as the forward headquarters of US central command. The United Arab Emirates hosts the US Al Dhafra air base which is an aviation hub that supports intelligence, survey and reconnaissance missions as well as advanced fighter deployments. Kuwait hosts the largest number of US bases in the region with roughly 13,500 personnel stationed there.

Taken together this US network represents one of the most extensive deployments of US military anywhere in the world. The oil rich kingdoms have been supported for decades first by the United Kingdom and now by the United States.

Australia has recently deployed........

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