Defence and Security
-
Review Essay: David Kemp. A Liberal State. How Australians Chose Liberalism over Socialism 1926-1966
David Kemp’s multi-volume studies of settler-colonial Australian Liberalism since 1788 have been carried out with support from the Menzies Research Centre and funding from the Cormack Foundation, which is registered as an ‘associated entity’ of the Liberal Party with the Australian Electoral Commission. But does the latest volume forget to factor in Australia’s regional challenges… Continue reading »
-
The True Meaning of the Afghan “Withdrawal”
The many Afghans who believed in America’s democratic promises will join a growing line of abandoned allies, stretching back to the Vietnam era and including, more recently, Kurds, Iraqis, and Somalis, among others. Once the full costs of Washington’s withdrawal from Afghanistan become apparent, the debacle may, not surprisingly, discourage potential future allies from trusting… Continue reading »
-
Whitlam, Keating, Anzac, and the drums of wars past
“I think the war against Hitler was justified. I don’t know whether the war against Wilhelm II was.” Thus spoke Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in a BBC TV interview with Lord Chalfont recorded in September 1973, and aired in December. It was screened in Australia in early January 1974. The transcript is in the Whitlam… Continue reading »
-
Armed Neutrality: an alternative, principled defence policy to safeguard an independent Australia, keep us out of wars and promote peace- Part 2
Armed Neutrality provides an alternative defence policy which would safeguard continental Australia, keep us out of wars and promote peace. It is strategically feasible and cost effective but would require investment in rebuilding our manufacturing base, restructuring the ADF and removing foreign bases from our soil in a series of steps…. Continue reading »
-
On the bandwagon: Australian media helps government peddle disinformation
There has, quite rightly, been criticism in the mainstream media of authoritarian states and their use of disinformation campaigns and cyber attacks. However, the US and its democratic allies decades ago pioneered the use of disinformation in their huge propaganda campaigns. China is just a beginner…. Continue reading »
-
Anti-China Threat Production in Australia: A redundant, out-of-control industry
Australia cannot lay claim to being the sole, or even senior author of its defence strategies and policies…. Continue reading »
-
War with China despite their immense military capabilities?
Five years ago, I would’ve said that the possibility of a “kinetic war” in the Indo-Pacific was very unlikely, now it is more likely than it was then. This is something that you and I may well have to confront in the next 5 to 10 years, Christopher Pyne…. Continue reading »
-
Afghanistan: drawing the curtains on the final act
The past month or two has brought back some imagery that’s haunted me for some time. Images that were part of footage taken by insurgents of my husbands smouldering crash site. It featured on news channels being watched in lounge rooms across the world well before any military official had the chance to even get… Continue reading »
-
Anzac Day and the frontier wars
Anzac Day in Hobart in 2019 did not turn out in the way that participants expected. The Hobart Mercury explained why the following morning. The front page was dominated by a large and arresting headline. ‘Battle Cry’ it declared and went on to explain that ‘Anzac Day Marchers Highlight Black War.’ Underneath the headline was… Continue reading »
-
Reinventing ANZAC Day away from its imperial origins
Attendance at ANZAC DAY dawn services plummeted by 70% between 2015 and 2019, and questions have been asked about the Day’s ‘fading relevance’. We need to re-invent ANZAC Day as a day of restitution for the appalling losses of an imperial expeditionary tradition that bears no relationship to the defense of Australia and its dignity… Continue reading »
-
How do we show true respect for the Anzacs?
First things first: let us remember and respect all those lost forever to the juggernaut of war, and all those crushed by it who still live with the trauma. But what does it mean to be truly respectful of our ‘Anzacs’? Should we focus unwaveringly on military achievement, or should we also probe fearlessly the… Continue reading »
-
It’s not what they know, it’s what they choose to tell us: reading the Australian War Memorial
Many more things happened in the past than are recorded in history. Some versions persist. Others have currency for a time, then get put aside, because fashions change or because the version does not fit political agendas or notions of what audiences expect. Some versions have been sanitised. Others are just suppressed. The Australian War… Continue reading »
-
I’ve got the Anzac Day Blues
Australia has never been the maker of its own history. So said the legendry Manning Clark, who spent a life mapping the heart of our nation. From the utterly worthless Sudan campaign of 1885 to the atrocity-ridden Afghanistan War of 2001-2013, our people have been made to wade through blood in foreign lands to satisfy… Continue reading »
-
Will secrecy trump justice for murdered Afghans?
Thousands of Australian men and women fought in Afghanistan and Iraq without being in breach of any of the rules of warfare, but one can imagine that whatever pride they have in their personal and military accomplishment is muted by their knowledge that a small minority face credible charges of murdering civilians and other war… Continue reading »
-
Anzac and Australasia: war and democracy in our national museums
The paradox of Anzac commemoration in Australia is that an acronym representing a transnational formation – Australia and New Zealand – known collectively as ‘Australasia’ in earlier decades – has come to stand for a nationalist celebration that effectively renders New Zealand invisible…. Continue reading »
-
Our MPs and Generals hope we forget the foolish Afghanistan war and the wounds it left on our honour
The aftermath of the Brereton inquiry into war crimes committed by SAS soldiers involves much more than continuing efforts to prosecute. It also involves findings of the degree of culpability of officers at all levels above the non-commissioned soldiers accused, as well as the whole culture of the SAS, perhaps of the whole army…. Continue reading »
-
The role of the ADF and its core business model
The core business of the ADF “will always be the application of lethal violence in the defence of our values, sovereignty and interests”, according to the newly installed Assistant Defence Minister, Andrew Hastie, speaking to military personnel. This statement is dangerous and wrong. The only person whose core business is the application of lethal violence… Continue reading »
-
If Australia needs nukes, who doesn’t?
Sensible people are making the case for a nuclear-armed Australia. Given Australia’s other problems, the ruinous cost, and the dangers of proliferation, this is the last thing we should be considering. … Continue reading »
-
ASPI sponsors collect billions from Defence
Scott Morrison’s latest billion-dollar missile spend was leaked to the media and then talked up by ASPI whose sponsors have raked in $51 billion in Defence Department contracts whilst doling cash to the highly-conflicted “think-tank”… Continue reading »
-
The blood-for-oil Iraq war demands a robust public inquiry
20th March 2021 is 18 years since Australia made the decision to join the United States in the disastrous war of aggression against Iraq. No Australian public Inquiry into the reasons and political responsibilities for that decision has been held and one is very much needed as war clouds are developing in South East Asia… Continue reading »
-
Why wouldn’t Vietnam want US warships in their waters?
The myth that Vietnam supports a “free and open Indo-Pacific” is based on the false perception of Vietnam as the US’s deputy in South-East Asia. It is time we recognise Vietnam’s autonomy, and respect that they are just as pragmatic as the US or China…. Continue reading »
-
Manufacturing consent: Australian War Memorial has become a cheerleader for war
The Australian War Memorial is being transformed, against the wishes of the Australian people, from a place of war commemoration to a place that honours war itself, a militaristic and rousing endorsement of every decision to send Australians to war…. Continue reading »
-
Spanner in the works: US tinkers with Mid-East foreign policy
The Biden administration has now made three significant moves in the cauldron of conflict that is the Middle East, although a deal with Iran looks set to be a sterner test…. Continue reading »
-
Two decades after 9/11, US war machine is in 85 countries
Since 2018, the US has provided “counterterrorism” training or assistance in 79 nations and its troops have carried out bombing or ground attacks in 10 countries, according to a new interactive map. Meanwhile, China has one official overseas base, in Djibouti…. Continue reading »
-
For the Prime Minister, sovereignty is reduced to possessing 70 fighter jets
Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to be suffering from the neurological condition visual agnosia – the inability to recognise certain objects for what they are. It is a condition popularised the neurologist, Oliver Sacks, is his book on the condition, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales…. Continue reading »
-
The new normal: the former ministers racing down the Gold Brick Road (Part 1)
This is a three-part look at the afterlife of former Commonwealth ministers of the Crown. Because of space limitations, the inquiry focuses on the notorious post-politics employment of two defence ministers, Christopher Pyne and Brendan Nelson, and one foreign minister, Julie Bishop…. Continue reading »
-
Diego Garcia: Rules for the powerful; bombs for the weak
In concert, the US and the UK in the 1960s seized the island of Diego Garcia, expelled its inhabitants and converted it into a massive airbase for the bombing of Middle Eastern and African targets. Both countries continue to defy a ruling by the International Court of Justice to transfer the island back to Mauritius…. Continue reading »
-
Not knowing one’s enemy: fundamental intelligence failures in Australia’s Afghanistan and Vietnam
There are disturbing parallels between what occurred in Afghanistan and what occurred 50 years earlier in Vietnam. The accidental killing of innocents is one link. So, too, is the intelligence vacuum into which our expeditionary military tradition sucked us in both countries…. Continue reading »
-
Australia: Clinging to a declining and aggressive US. An updated repost
Declining empires never go gracefully. And neither will the US empire – addicted as it is to a belief in its ‘exceptionalism’ and its grounding in aggression both at home and abroad. The attack on the US Capitol reminds us how fragile our ally is. The civil war is unfinished business.Western media have sought to… Continue reading »
-
It’s time to demilitarise America’s democracy
After 20 years of endless war in which trillions were spent and hundreds of thousands died on all sides without the US military achieving anything approaching victory, the Pentagon continues to be funded at staggering levels, while funding to deal with the greatest threats — from the pandemic to climate change to white supremacy —… Continue reading »
Top 5 most read
- War with China despite their immense military capabilities?
Five years ago, I would've said that the possibility of… - On the bandwagon: Australian media helps government…
There has, quite rightly, been criticism in the mainstream media… - Whitlam, Keating, Anzac, and the drums of wars past
"I think the war against Hitler was justified. I don’t… - Prince Philip and that ‘socialist…
It could not have escaped anyone’s attention that Prince Philip… - What do we get for the millions spent on COVID…
Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout is not just a shambles, it’s…
