Defence and Security
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The US sees China through the dark mirror of its own unbridled aggression
As China grows and prospers many in the US want us to believe that China will follow the same path that the US itself pursued – global military aggression, the overthrow of numerous governments around the world and persecution of minorities at home. (A repost from February 2023.) Continue reading »
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How did Australia get seduced by AUKUS?
AUKUS. The most disastrous defence-policy mistake in our history: In a class of its own as an exemplar of bureaucratic incompetence. Continue reading »
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Can war on the Korean Peninsula be averted?
The US seems to have decided it cannot tolerate China as a threat to its global hegemony. Continue reading »
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Submarines then and to come
The multi-billion dollar expenditure on nuclear powered submarines as part of the AUKUS pact has attracted some attention. Perhaps it helps to provide historical context if it is remembered that Australia’s first submarines were of limited use in the defence of our shorelines. Continue reading »
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Foreign agents have infiltrated our most secret government establishments
The mass media got itself into a flap this week (28, 29 Feb & 1 March) over ASIO Director, Mike Burgess’ claim that a former Australian politician “sold out their country, party and former colleagues” after being recruited by spies of a foreign regime. Continue reading »
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Enhanced lethality but no better security: New navy gears up for war
Last Tuesday Defence Minister Richard Marles announced the Albanese government’s plans to overhaul the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) ageing surface fleet. The new ‘enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet’ will more than double the amount of main surface vessels the RAN will operate, but their usefulness in ensuring Australian security is dubious. Continue reading »
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Hugh White dismantles the AUKUS project
As opposition to AUKUS grows, the nuclear submarine project does not stand up to expert scrutiny. Continue reading »
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Submarines, stealth and STEM – stifling any AUKUS debate
The Australian government has decided to ignore critics of Aukus in parliament and the community. Rather it has moved to embed the idea of Aukus directly into the Australian psyche. Continue reading »
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Fractured consensus, fabricated facts, and the truth of Western wars
Why, when the majority of civil society opposes Australia going to war against China, and public confidence in the United States’ will and capacity to defend Australia is declining, do successive governments pursue AUKUS and a war with China over Taiwan with such enthusiasm? Continue reading »
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After Ukraine: US readies “transnational kill chain” for Taiwan proxy war
The US senses that the clock is running rapidly down on its power. The question in Washington regarding war with China is not if, but when–and how. Continue reading »
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The new Pericles: Marles, master of the Seas
Thucydides has Pericles, the great Athenian statesman and strategist, observe that “Mastery of the sea is no small matter”. The Defence Minister should have been mindful of Pericles’ words as he launched the Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet (ELSCF). Or he might have recalled Pericles’ caution that “I am far more afraid of our own Continue reading »
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Ukraine highlights our defence procurement shambles
The Ukraine invasion has thrown into sharp focus the massive failure of successive Australian government’s defence procurement programs to strengthen our military capability. Continue reading »
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Australian defence: from self-reliance to subsidising US war with China
Our leaders have rendered us America’s pawn, contractually. Australia has abrogated the right to choose peace with China. Dumbly. Unnecessarily. Deceitfully. For political ends. We once had a leader who put Australia’s security before the desires of a distant, powerful protector. What is the prospect of chancing upon another of Curtinian quality? Continue reading »
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As a new world war rages, an anxious China walks softly
A new world war is underway. For those living in developed countries, where gruesome battles remain mere headlines, it may not feel like the earth is burning, but in 2022 a total of 180 military conflicts (defined as resulting in 25 battle-deaths or more in that year) occurred worldwide. The final statistics for 2023 compiled Continue reading »
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Mobilising opposition to AUKUS – The Marrickville Declaration
Community opposition to the AUKUS project finds expression in a Sydney suburb. Continue reading »
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The odds of China using nuclear war to resolve the Taiwan issue
Recently the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a thinktank in Washington, DC, did a survey asking U.S. and Taiwan Experts if China might use nuclear weapons in a conflict with or over Taiwan. The results were astonishing to most who read the study. Almost half of U.S. experts reported they thought China would. Only Continue reading »
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A deeper look at Hamas and what terrorism means in Israel-Palestine
When one side in hostilities lacks an army, that side often finds its only recourse is to use what the other side calls “terrorism.” Continue reading »
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A US Doctrine of Vengeance: Who has the right to punish?
The campaign to ‘punish’ enemies of the USA and Israel shows that states which argue from strength have no wish for justice – merely revenge. Continue reading »
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Israel’s dignity will be damaged, Hamas will be crowned winner, but the war will end
The terms of the emerging deal with Hamas are being presented by Israel as entailing a “painful price.” It is based on the assumption that whatever is good for Hamas must be bad for Israel and whatever is bad for the Palestinians is good for us: a zero-sum game. Continue reading »
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The US plan to kill more Ukrainians
Biden and Schumer’s proposed $61 billion for the Ukraine war will make no difference on the battlefield except to prolong the war, the tens of thousands of deaths, and the physical destruction of Ukraine. Continue reading »
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The US keeps bombing people while saying it doesn’t want to fight
One of the weirdest things happening in the world today is the way US officials keep insisting that they are not at war with the groups they’re dropping bombs on in the middle east, and that they do not seek conflict with the people they are attacking. Continue reading »
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The edge of war, our battle for truth
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984. Continue reading »
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How to break free from slavish adherence to U.S. foreign policy
Current Australian defence policy involves close integration with the United States military in all areas, making an independent foreign policy impossible and ensuring Australia’s automatic involvement in US-instigated wars such as a war with China, our major trading partner. A policy of neutrality would free Australia from involvement in such disastrous military adventures and enable Continue reading »
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When escalation means escalation
In one of the world’s poorest countries, Yemen, there is a tribe called the Houthis. Emanating from that tribe to lead a larger coalition of other tribes is a group which does not want to be ruled by a Western or Saudi backed puppet government, they are called Ansar Allah, which means Supporters of god. Continue reading »
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New Zealand goose-steps towards the moral abyss
With its decision to suspend or “pause” funding to the United Nation’s key organisation that is providing assistance to Gaza’s famished, desperate population, New Zealand could open itself up to a charge of participating in a genocide. Continue reading »
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Democrats are demented genocidal war sluts
President Biden is reportedly preparing to begin a new weeks-long bombing campaign in the middle east in retaliation for a drone attack which killed three US troops this past weekend. These strikes are expected to include Iranian targets, tempting the nightmare scenario of a full-blown war with Iran, despite the public acknowledgement that there’s no Continue reading »
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Australia must not join the US in goading China to war
There is clear evidence that US efforts to build a coalition of allies in our region is directed at containing Chinese power and developing the capability to eventually confront the Chinese military. That scenario is a nightmare for Australia. We now find certain elements of a Labor government flirting with containment and confrontation with China Continue reading »
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Research security, information restriction, and the universities
It was bound to happen in one form or another. The AUKUS arrangements were a guarantee of it. The ‘it’ in question is the alleged discovery and lamentation that, possibly, “Australia has one of the weakest research security frameworks in the developed world.” Redress is demanded and of a draconian character; not to do so Continue reading »
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Australia’s biggest handicap: believing our own bullshit about our military
One of the many things Australians should consider as they contemplate our nationhood on the day set aside for this purpose is our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars. We boast of our military traditions, our baptisms of fire and of our long traditions of unquestioning obedience and eager anticipation of Continue reading »
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Howard still ducks Iraq question
Former prime minister John Howard has defended his record on committing Australia to the Iraq war. But we are no closer to fully understanding his reasons. Continue reading »
