Every time we Palestinians, despite all the compromises we offer, try to gain a modicum of justice we find not only is it denied to us, but that we are the ones to blame for this lack of progress for a peaceful co-existence with our occupiers. In May of this year, I will reach the Continue reading »
Defence and Security
The Grand Illusions of the leaders of Western Democracies are crashing to defeat in Ukraine. La Grande Illusion was the 1937 Renoir film that showed the tragic mistakes of the aristocrats of the European empires in World War I. In turn, it referred to a 1910 British tract, The Great Illusion that claimed war was Continue reading »
This is war protest month, with more to follow. Will efforts against the Iraq war, that failed twenty years ago this week, succeed in heading off the next one? On Sunday 19 February thousands protested at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC against US militarism, proxy warfare, and the threat of nuclear conflict. The ANSWER Continue reading »
Richard Cullen’s article, ‘Why Japan is not an acceptable military ally’, published in Pearls and Irritations (5 Jan. 2023) is an unfortunate piece of historical muck-raking. The core of his argument is that Japan’s record as a brutal imperialist power in the years 1895 to 1945 disqualifies it now, and presumably until further notice, from Continue reading »
If Australia sleepwalks into a war with China, as many analysts fear is happening right now, then amid our strategic slumber we should at least ask one question: what would war with China mean for Australia? Put bluntly, the repercussions of Australia joining the US in any war with China over the status of Taiwan Continue reading »
On Tuesday, General Mark Milley, chair of the American joint chiefs of staff declared, in effect, that Russian had been militarily defeated in Ukraine. Russia, he said, was now a global pariah, and the world remained inspired by Ukrainian bravery and resilience. “In short, Russia has lost,” he told a press conference after a NATO Continue reading »
This article discusses suicide. It was 10 years ago that then Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Morrison AO gave his famous speech in support of service women, (written mostly by Catherine McGregor AM). Around this time, there were five concurrent inquiries into Defence culture, including the prominent Broderick Report on the treatment of women. All of this led to Continue reading »
The first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine approaches. No direct dialogue has yet been established between the warring parties. Just more hostility. More weapons, always more weapons and therefore more dead people. Many of the dead are so young, as in every war and as in these pictures below from last year. Tragically they Continue reading »
If war is the last resort, why doesn’t our governance system enforce that condition? Will our War Powers be reformed in 2023? A Joint Standing Committee of the parliament is currently inquiring into our “international armed conflict decision making”. There have been over a hundred submissions, and one day of public hearings (on 9 December Continue reading »
When Ferdinand E Marcos was elected the 10th president of the Philippines in 1965, it was with the support of the United States. Laudatory articles about him appeared in the American media, and the US vice president, Hubert Humphrey, attended his inauguration. The US saw him as an amenable politician who was also popular, although Continue reading »