Afleitch (Secretary of External Affairs) Confirmation Hearing

[afleitch]

Mr Secretary, what are your thoughts on the Military Modernization and Readiness Bill currently on the floor of the Senate?

'Hawk'

I am going to break ranks here; I oppose it as it stands. While I believe military upgrades are necessary as part of a long term change in world affairs, I do not believe bulk investment of this nature will help where it matters most; our troops. Until we can be 100% certain that each and every one of our troops on the ground and all our military personel have the equiptment, resource and financial support that they requre both on and off duty then we should not spend what has been outlined in the bill on other hardware.

I believe in a miltary funded from the bottom up. We can never be certain and in fact we pray that each plane, and each missile will never be put to use but we can be 100% sure that our soldiers will.

I will only support this bill if material and financial provision is made for our military personel.

(Assuming that real life developments are reflected in Atlasia...)
How would you reccomend the government respond to the actions of North Korea?

First if all, we must offer our support to our Japanese and South Korean allies and be prepared to talk with China over this issue. I do not believe it is in the best interests for anyone to take any military response in the short term. We must push diplomacy at the UN and amongst our Pacific allies. North Korea's people are starving- I do not support the suspension of any food aid or trade in foodstuffs. On other fronts we should consider tangable economic sanctions of a material nature and deploy our intelligence to determine the nature of the explosion and locate where the material used to generate this explosion is located. Should North Korea launch any missile containing nuclear material, even as a test then I believe we should ready our military.

[afleitch]

Similar to my previous question, how do you reccomend the government act regarding Iran?

We act if Iran acts it's as simple as that. The Iran situation is currently the brief of our intelligence services and I believe this should continue. The Iranian president is the source of diplomatic 'hot air', and we must listen to exactly what he says, but not be taken in by his idle threats. I believe that should he dare to do anything that would undermime the safety of his own people, those above him, the clerics and the holders of power in Iran will depose him plain and simply. Unlike Saddam or Kim Jong Il, he is not 'supreme' and does not have control over all branches of government or the military and his position is suprisingly unstable. He does not and should not believe he has the support of his people, particular amongst the youth of the nation- I believe his own people will be his downfall and it is his people whom we as nation must court with hope and liberty with the help of our own Iranian community.

I believe we should work with the international community at present and carefully monitor any military build up or weapons development. Any acts of agression will be met with brute force on our part along with those who ally with us against Iran.

[afleitch]

Would Atlasia's military be able to defeat an allied force of say North Korea and Iran, or do you believe the Senate should vote on increasing the budget?

Injunction or not, I'll ansert this as I've had computer troubles recently.

First of all, the possibility of an 'allied' force composing of North Korea and Iran is bordering on the strange, but I understand the broader themes to your question, in that are we ready to defeat a new enemy? Yes we can, but I don't believe at current we are applying our time and enery in the most effective way, which is why I will I am planning to push for an amendment to our Military Readiness and Preparedness bill to ringfence funding for our the needs of our troops and armed forces.

Secondly, should the Senate increase the Budget? Yes, when I was Secretary of State one of my first concerns was the fact we had a reduced budget that I discovered upon closer inspection meant that we were in grave danger of underfunding and underprotecting our consulates abroad. In short our diplomatic services were squeezed amongst other things.

As far as I am aware nothing has come of these recommendations since I entered office. Indeed, such is the volume of proposed legislation, that the only bill I have been able to draft on any matter of foreign affairs (The Irish Paramilitary Bill) has not seen the light of day, like many others for almost 3 months partially due to the summer bombardment of free trade bills by the former PPT. I am pleased that the current PPT, Senator Hawk is doing his best to overcome this legislation backlog.

So do I support an increased budget? Yes, and I believe it is of such a prime concern that should one be proposed that it is dealt with swiftl by the Senate.