How long is a piece of string?

Twice as long as half of it. What is it about academics who believe that they must have their say on everything even remotely related to their specialised field of expertise. The ADF is on the way out of Timor Leste, after just under 6 years of operations to assist the fledgling democracy to get on it's feet. Dr Michael McKinley of Australian National University feels that forces should have sat around for another 12 months at least. You would of course listen to a man who refers to a country by it's former name, being as politically aware and astute as he allegedly is. Do you want to know the definition of an 'expert'?
'X' is utilised in scientific parlance to indicate an unknown quantity, and a spurt is a drip under pressure. Ergo, today's expert is an unknown drip under pressure.

If I could just send a quick shout out to the good Doc? The Ph.D thesis of James Caygill you are supervising called 'Intelligence and the United Nations'. That is usually referred to as an oxymoron.

Dr McKinley says the Australian troops could have stayed for another year. "For the sort of psychological security of the East Timorese and perhaps even as a general message to the residue of trouble making, I thought perhaps Australia might have stayed somewhat longer,"

It's good to know that McKinley feels that the Timorese Defence Force is psychologically insecure. The residue of troublemaking that he refers to will always be there, at least for the short-medium term of 10-15 years. Until the agitators and the Indon military elements of 1999/2000 are moved, retired, expired etc, there will always be the subversives that want to create disharmony and discord. Keeping the ADF in place is like food aid. If they don't take the reins at the first possible instance, they never will. As it is, the mission was originally envisaged to terminate 12 months ago, but bleeding hearts recommended to the UN that it be prolonged another 12 months. Perhaps McKinley could prevail upon other Asian neighbours that are more 'culturally sensitive' to the Timorese to take up Australia's burden and add that little bit of extra psychological comfort.

You would think that an academic would be happy that our troops are returning to Australia, and no longer imposing our belligerence and ignorant ways on the noble savages. The doctor's educational and research interests are diverse. Why, he can expound on a range of subjects at the next faculty knees-up.
International Relations, Strategic Studies, Australian foriegn policy, Regional Security.

I wonder what makes McKinley think he should be instructing at the senior thesis level on these subjects? If anyone has a bio of Michael McKinley, feel free to drop the link in the comments.

UPDATE: It seems clear that pet professors Hugh White and Michael McKinley are the media's 'go-to' guys for political commentary. You would think that both of them would have gotten around to getting that Masters of Defence Studies by now.

Cross posted at Bastards Inc.

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