The Jakarta Post, 8/25/2004 6:31:56 PM
Australians rate Indonesia their greatest military threat: Report
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP): The Australian public ranks Indonesia as the country's
greatest military threat, a study by a defense think-tank said on Wednesday.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute surveyed opinion polls on defense issues
dating back to the 1960s and found Australians now saw less chance of an foreign
security threat than at any time in the past 30 years.
"However, to the extent that the public identifies a security threat to Australia, there is
a greater consensus than ever before that the threat comes from one country:
Indonesia," it said.
"Notwithstanding improved bilateral relations particularly during the 1980s and 1990s,
the public's concern about Indonesia has increased almost consistently since opinion
polls first began to track it in the late 1960s," it said.
"This worry does not seem to be justified, either by Jakarta's intent, or by the level of
Indonesian military capability. In part the poll data reflects the recent experience of
instability in East Timor (in 1999)."
The report also attempted to gauge Australian attitudes towards casualties in major
military operations.
It found the public would accept unlimited casualties if the military were directly
protecting Australia from external threat.
But the tolerance for fatalities declined markedly for lesser operations against drug
dealers, people smugglers, in peacekeeping operations or when supporting the United
Nations.
About one-third of Australians were not ready to accept any casualties at all in these
operations, the report found. (***)
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