‘A strong defence is only possible with a strong economy’
Without breaking out the history books to verify, my instinct is that war has been more likely to occur at times of national, regional or global economic weakness. Hence my further instinct that the phrase above is not just political BS, it’s dead wrong. Our defence has probably never been stronger than when our economy has been in the most trouble; it’s just that war has a way of focussing the electorate’s mind.
A better phrase would be ‘a strong defence is only possible if the the people are prepared to pay for it’. Even that doesn’t tell the story in our case, as despite the whingeing we do have a large defence budget by global standards!