Andrew Malcolm, IBD:

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced today a new military cooperation agreement that will see up to 2,500 U.S. Marines based and training there.

There will also be U.S. Air Force units flying in and out and training for six months at a time with Aussie counterparts in the north.

Oh, and you might notice U.S. warships making more regular calls at Australian ports, perhaps including some of America’s 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. But why would someone think that has anything to do with China’s attempts to project its power across the region?

No rush to implement the new agreement either, which was pegged to President Obama’s two-day visit and the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS military alliance. Let’s see, 60 years ago. That would be 1951 during the Korean War that China had a little something to do with, if memory serves.

Republican Ron Paul won’t like additional American troops abroad. But the new Australian-U.S. military arrangement won’t begin until 2012. And that doesn’t start for another 46 days.

According to a heavily-jargoned, post-midnight White House statement:

“This will enhance bilateral collaboration and offer greater opportunities for combined training and exercises. Select equipment and supplies in support of these initiatives will be prepositioned in these locations to facilitate exercises and training.

“These joint initiatives, which will take place in Australian facilities, are part of an ongoing review of U.S. force posture in the Asia-Pacific region intended to pursue a more geographically distributed, operationally resilient and politically sustainable military presence in this region…..

“Moreover, these initiatives will better position both nations to join with other partners to respond in a timely and effective manner to a range of contingencies in the Asia-Pacific, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

Right, disaster relief. Of course. A 100-year tsunami is due sometime in the next 93 years. And it’s important to be ready.

Both Australian and American officials hasten to point out that the newly-deployed American military forces will not be based in Australia permanently.

No, sir.

Instead, various U.S. Marine and Air Force units will rotate through every six months — permanently.

This is the kind of would-be imperial militarism that will almost certainly cause Obama to lose his anti-war base.

Okay, not really. But it does seem to go against message.

Which to this point has been the foreign policy equivalent of “Look: a dingo ate my baby!”