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”
Category: Defence
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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 and a decision to join the US in another war may be around the corner.
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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. (more…)
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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. (more…)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. Compare that to Chinese action on uninhabited and adjacent islands.
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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.
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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 minimise this constitutional crisis- a democratic blip and nothing more!
Joe Biden will smooth a few rough edges but he won’t do much to arrest the decline. He will keep telling us that ‘America is back’ and leading again!
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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 — proves woefully inadequate.
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Challenges to the Political and Peace Settlement Process in Afghanistan
The past 12 months saw progress towards political and peace settlements in Afghanistan. However, this progress is conditional upon further developments in 2021, and attitudes range from cautious optimism to outright pessimism from both Afghan and international stakeholders.
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War Crimes? What war crimes? Nothing to see here
Burying crimes under layers of legal process is tantamount to cover-up. And cover-ups destroy democracy. Just another one to add to the list of evidence showing the Morrison government’s problem with accountability – ‘sports rorts’ and the bonanza for Liberal donors from the ‘Leppington Triangle’ land deal being just two examples.
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Taiwan: a ‘wicked’ strategic problem for Australia
ASPI’s executive director Peter Jennings is banging the war drums over Taiwan again. He would have Australia automatically marching into a war in defence of the island. Why would Australia go to war over Taiwan? (more…)
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Lessons from our diplomacy in Asia in the 1930s
Scott Morrison says he has been “revisiting” the 1930s, a period in which Australia faced an “existential threat”. The strategies of conservative policy makers of the 1930s are worth examining by today’s leaders so we don’t repeat the disasters of that time.
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Wiped from history books: Menzies’ plan for the Jindivik pilotless bomber to finance Woomera
Far from being duped, Prime Minister Bob Menzies and his Cabinet went to extraordinary lengths to support the development in Australia of British atomic bombs and thermonuclear components for the H bomb. (more…)
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Sleepwalking into a fascist alliance
Those critically engaged in understanding and debating the future of Australian defence and national security strategies should pass two votes of thanks: the first is to former President Donald Trump; the second to the recent political-strategic proclamations of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. (more…)
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Japan’s kow-towing to US is leading to ecological destruction on a majestic reef.
Japan, in consultation with the US, is trying to build a huge military facility for the US Marine Corps by reclaiming a large part of the wondrous, biodiverse Oura Bay. It is akin to Australia offering part of the Great Barrier Reef to the Pentagon to establish a military facility.
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Nuclear disarmament is not going to happen: the case for signing the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty
The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force today. Australia’s failure to sign the treaty is at odds not only with its international humanitarian obligations but also with its most basic strategic interests. (more…)
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Australian government’s refusal to recognise 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winners a stain on decency
On 22 January, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will put nuclear weapons in the same category as other banned inhumane weapons including biologic and chemical weapons, cluster bombs and antipersonnel land mines. This was largely the work of ICAN, the International Campaign Against Nuclear Arms.
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What should Australia want from a Biden National Security Strategy? Avoiding war in Asia
Australia should hope for a major shift away from President Trump’s strategy but not an uncritical return to President Obama’s 2015 version. For a start a new NSS should reposition the US as a less crusading nation, one more accepting of difference (more…)
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It’s surely time to come clean on Australia’s 1950s’ nuclear plans
Why was Britain allowed to break its agreement that it would not conduct thermonuclear tests in Australia? (more…)
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Militarism has become the norm. We need a civil revival
Military governors headed our first colonial settlements and led the Frontier Wars to dispossess the indigenous people. I thought we had outgrown that military relic. But not so. We are back with military governor’s general rewarded for their service in Afghanistan. The military are being intruded into more and more of our civil life.
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Our aggressive and violent ally. An updated repost. Part 2 of 2
Declining empires never decline 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. Add to the mix that 70 million people voted for Donald Trump and 70% of Republican supporters believe that the election was stolen by the Democrats. A sick country! Joe Biden will smooth a few rough edges but won’t do much more. (more…)
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Hamlet’s glass and the Brereton Report: the radical reality of Australia’s security culture
It is almost an invariable rule that the citizens of nation-states in their generality, and Australia in particular, are obsessed with security and fascinated with violence; equally, they are illiterate in understanding their own traditions and practices. And when they ostensibly honour international law, rules-based orders, add peace, they require a more suspecting glance than they are accorded. An iconic play provides the invitation. (more…)
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Our aggressive and violent ally. An updated repost. Part 1 of 2
Declining empires never decline 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. Add to the mix that 70 million people voted for Donald Trump and 70% of Republican supporters believe that the election was stolen by the Democrats. A sick country! Joe Biden will smooth a few rough edges but won’t do much more. (more…)
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The US blatantly ignores international laws and rules in Diego Garcia (Repost 3 July 2020)
China is rightly criticised for building islands for military purposes in the South China Sea while ignoring an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by the Philippines. But what of the US in Diego Garcia?
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War Crimes: Where does ultimate responsibility lie? Only a Royal Commission will determine the answer
The Brereton report has major deficiencies around where ultimate responsibility lies for war crimes in Afghanistan. To understand this and to eradicate the cultural and systemic causes of the alleged crimes, we need a Royal Commission. (more…)
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Marketing and mythologies in our endless wars on behalf of others
In a year beset by a global pandemic, attendant economic instability, a tumultuous US election, and foundering global diplomacy, reflection inevitably trends to what has been tested, what has been tried, and what is true.