From an Occasional Reader, an article in the Aussie Mag, Monthly.
First and last paras:
In the long story of Australia’s ascent to fully realised nationhood, who would have predicted a final chapter about submarines? The nation’s relationship with them goes back to 1914, when the Royal Australian Navy acquired two British E-class boats. A year later, in the Sea of Marmara, Australian submarines were used in anger for the first and only time, to attack Turkish shipping. Since then, submarines have occasionally excited controversy among our politicians and the public. From the time the Hawke government decided to build the Collins-class boats in Adelaide, submarine acquisition and sustainment has been a source of almost constant intrigue among defence analysts.
...
Yet despite our record and our geographical advantages, our political class suffers from what former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Peter Varghese called a “deeply held mindset that Australia is incapable of [defending itself]. This sense of vulnerability, the historical legacy of a small colonial population inhabiting a vast continent adjacent to an alien region, continues to dominate the way Australians see their security.” Given Australia’s record, the refusal of our political and security elites to countenance the idea that we have the ability and resolve to meet this challenge represents a failure of imagination, and a deficit of ambition that is unworthy of a great nation.
For the whole middle bit of the article, click here.
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My response:
I’ve had a read of the article. I’ll have a second read and then maybe write something in the blog. It does rather inspire me to.
My quick and dirty take is that we’re better off as an ally of a powerful friend, like the US, than we are as an “independent” entity in a region increasingly tested by an assertive China. With which we share very few values indeed. Despite my life having been spent in its motherly embrace.
“Self reliant” is fine. That’s what various US presidents have pushed us to, after all. But “independent” or “neutral" is a whole 'nother thing. As are the nuclear subs, a weird and complex issue, that we seem to have stumbled into half blind.
Anyway, thanks for sending me the link. Much appreciated.
Trust this finds you all well.
Here, things are much as ever. I remain in my own self-imposed contemplative exile. Observing birds. And our blooming orchids. Our many orchids, inside and out, are right now a very fine sight indeed. One of them is called “Dancing Lady”, an epiphyte on our travellers’ palms, which has just erupted in exuberant marigold bloom, that I commented on this morning to Arlene. Who replied, “Yes… and we have our Dancing Dog”, pointing to Byron. Our labradoodle, who does an excited dance when it’s throw-the-ball time.
For all that exile, I’m very optimistic. Very Optimistic…in caps. I want to live, live to see what happens with self-driving cars. With humanoid robots. With AI. With Man on Mars. With John (who’s now negotiating major mergers and acquisitions...weird).
It strikes me that we humans are on the cusp of Some Very Great Things. Things I can’t even imagine. That we can’t yet see.
“To infinity and beyond!”
Cheers,
Buzz Forse
