Don't help our own citizens in trouble, in case we offend a foreign country?

Depends on the foreign country. It's the US, so yes.

Just go look up former prime minister Julia Gillard address US congress.

I cringe every time I rewatch.

(Then again thanks to Wikileaks we now know US were “assessing” whether Gillard would be a good replacement to Rudd a year before it all happened… so I guess that made her a fan!

Our core military strategy is to suck up to naval superpowers in hopes they'll include us in their own defense strategy. It's sound policy, but it means that ultimately we can't afford to piss them off.

Yup. It's a bit like the relationship between Belarus and Russia - perhaps even more supplicative.

Aus sent troops to the invasion of Vietnam too. You dont do that unless you badly want to suck up to the US. Even the UK who will do virtually anything else for the US didnt do that.

oh geez, youre right. cant stop shaking my head. i always knew we were terrible at being independent (we voted to keep the monarchy ffs).

How appropriate you have the same monarch as other countries with the same relationship with the US though. I am British and feel the same about our relationship with the US.

Why does Australia need help with defence though? I don't remember any country having conflict or issues with Australia, and it is a remote, hard to reach island anyway.

Anywhere in south east Asia is within China’s grasp, In Asia, which is Next Door and closer than New Zealand, strongly dislike Australia due to supporting East Timorese independence.

Part the Random Caps I use iOS voice dictation

> I don't remember any country having conflict or issues with Australia

During WW2 we were bombed by the Japanese.

Is this comment sarcastic or a joke or something? China...

It's not just a foreign country, it's their boss.

Australia is a long time critical ally of the US that has accumulated significant political and social capital and can expect any requests to be considered seriously.