australia flexes muscles

I heard somewhere that in this post-Cold War era, humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations have become the best reasons for keeping a standing military alive. That, and of course, terrorism (which is the dubious shared responsibility of both military and police).

Now, Australia is using this as a reason to increase the size of the army. They deny it has anything to do with Iraq, or Afghanistan, or I suppose Lebanon as well.

PM to increase size of army
AdelaideNow, August 24

"I have believed for a long time that because of our additional commitments in our region and my strong belief that situations like that which arose in the Solomon Islands are likely to occur in our region and given that Australia has the prime responsibility to respond to these situations, I've believed for some time that we've needed a larger army and I'll be having something significant to announce in relation to that later today."

Mr Howard said a bigger army was needed to meet Australia's likely future responsibilities, both as a peacekeeping force in neighbouring countries and as a member of the coalition against terrorism. (link)