FUTILITY OF WAR.

In the past 107 years, Australia has been involved in wars for which there has been little benefit and great cost.

In 1914, this country promoted war as an adventure, spurring thousands of young men to enlist. By the same token, some German soldiers boasted that they’d be having breakfast in Paris by September 2, 1914.

The cost of war, not only in human and economic terms, was compounded by an unjust peace treaty that laid the foundations for the rise to power of a truly evil psychopath. Yes, in 1945, the Nazi Regime had been defeated, BUT, Nazism as an ideology still existed in pockets.

On this day, 76 years ago, Japan officially surrendered, but that last Japanese to surrender was in 1972, on a remote island.

1972 was the year that Australia elected a Labor Government which abolished conscription (Pig Iron Bob had two forms of what he called “compulsory military training” the first of which was twelve weeks basic training (service was decided by a ballot and every male had to register for national service in they turned 20, and if your birthdate came out, you were called up. In 1964, he changed it two either two years full-time or six years part-time) and officially ended Australia’s involvement in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was a civil war and Australia’s involvement in it was based on the foreign policy precepts of “Monolithic Communism”, “Forward Defence” and the “Domino Theory”. After China had been proclaimed the People’s Republic, by Mao Zedong, in 1949, Australia believed that other countries would fall to communism like dominos and that we had to stop communism from reaching us. This was in spite of the fact that Ho Chi Minh had nothing to do with the Chinese Communist Party, and the fact that South Vietnam was a military dictatorship.

Two years after the ceasefire was declared in Vietnam, the North invaded and all of Vietnam became communist.

Now, Australia is leaving Afghanistan, a conflict that has lasted twice as long as Vietnam, and cost many lives, and like the stalemate ceasefire in Vietnam, we are seeing a resurgence in the Taliban.

After the September 11 attacks, of 2001, Australia and the USA committed troops to Afghanistan, on the belief that Osama bin Laden was hiding out there, and with the aim to smash the Taliban. Afghanistan became a quagmire with huge casualties and for what? The Taliban has not been smashed. I am not saying that we should turn a blind eye to human rights abuses, how we should respond to that is Australia, the USA, Canada, the UK and EU Member nations, (and even Japan) should accept some Afghani refugees who want to escape the Taliban.

The Taliban will not be smashed by world powers saying, “Hey, you can’t do that,” and invading Afghanistan, the Taliban will only be removed by the people of Afghanistan saying, “Enough is enough,” and overthrowing them from within.