(Mounts soapbox, adjusts braces, looks out at heckling crowd, ever ready to duck incoming missiles…)
To quote from the first post of this thread: “Dr John Bruni, from the University of Adelaide, says Australia's relatively small armed forces are already fulfilling ongoing security commitments to East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Bougainville.”
I have to agree with Dr Bruni. Our military personnel, highly trained and capable as they might be, stand a very good chance of seeing out this war as did those Australians who “went” to the Gulf War. Our RAAF 707 crews picked up a campaign medal for getting a suntan around the pool at the 5 star hotel in Cyprus, while our SAS, although they did get to Saudi Arabia, never even looked like seeing action, because the Americans will only use token allied forces in one of two circumstances:
(1) when it’s politically expedient to have the world media see that they have allies fighting alongside them. In that case, said commitment of allied forces will be in an unimportant area where the campaign will not be seriously affected should the token allied force fudge their assignment, or
(2) when they have to. ie, when the situation’s gone completely tits up and… well, you know the rest. So let’s pray to God it doesn’t come to that over there.
Further to Dr Bruni’s comments, it’s curious to see history possibly repeating itself. In 1942, when Australia was quite literally threatened with imminent invasion, - (had the Japanese chosen to, they could have walked in virtually unopposed in the three month period of Feb-Apr 1942) – Australia’s army, navy and the majority of its air force were all heavily committed fighting someone else’s war (I accept, this is a debatable point) in the…? Where were they? Why, it was the Middle East. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.
I’m afraid I see this as a largely wasted effort, (and I’d be willing to lay money on the line that the vast majority of the troops who go there, with the possible exception of the P3 crews, will come to agree with me by the time they come home). However, the PM has an election to win, and history has proven that there’s nothing quite like a parade or two of soldiers going off to war to get the general populace on side and voting the right way.
On to another matter altogether, I believe that after the events of Sept 11th, universal conscription should be introduced in Australia as soon as possible, whatever it (supposedly) costs. However, it should have nothing at all to do with providing troops for overseas military commitments, which should be wholly voluntary. (And the military hierarchy would agree with me. Today’s military, particularly when on active service, wants and needs highly trained and highly skilled specialists, and not the massed armies of the two world wars.)
Its emphasis need not even be universally military. I’d suggest two streams, one military and another of civil service for those who object to carrying arms (or who couldn’t be accommodated by the military). The purpose of this universal conscription would be national service, which everyone would do, so no one would be disadvantaged as losing twelve months of ‘life’ (or whatever the period was) while others didn’t.
And although it would give the country future generations of at least (very) basically trained soldiers, its real purpose would be to meld those future generations into becoming Australians, wherever they’re from. Young people of all social strata and ethnic backgrounds would meet and mix while doing worthwhile work for the nation, possibly in the remote outback. And the cost, which would be substantial, would be repaid tenfold in the human product that would come from it. Forget the Vietnam war side of the equation if you can and ask any Nasho of the 60’s era and he’ll tell you, almost without exception, that it was the making of him. (And despite what the bleeding hearts will insist on telling you, any Nasho who didn’t want to go to Vietnam had plenty of opportunities to duck the assignment. Most came to the conclusion that going to war beat the hell out of whitewashing rocks and square bashing at Pukka for two years.)
Best of luck to everyone who goes. I sincerely hope it’s all over before you get there, or that I’m right and you’re not put in harm’s way, as I don’t want to see any more names of this generation on Australian cenotaphs. However, I fear I’m going to, and not just in the current mess in Afghanistan. But if push comes to shove, I have no doubt you’ll be the equal of those who wore the same uniform in the past.
(Climbs down from soapbox and checks to see if any of the rotten fruit thrown at me is halfway edible.)