Do we need a military alliance with anybody?

Vietnam was the first war in which it cost $1 million to kill one enemy soldier.

The cost of defending the indefensible

Our alliance with the US is a pressure upon us to arm expensively and inappropriately. It is clear from what is occurring in Iraq that high-tech systems are ineffective when the enemy is elusive. We are also incompetent in the high-tech marketplace. We have submarines which after rebuilding still cannot do the job and we have obsolete navy helicopters purchased as state-of-the-art.

Without counting the surveillance and other aircraft on order, we are talking of spending $22 billion just on new fighter planes. That is enough money to save dozens of our dying country towns. We have lost many of our F111s in training crashes, and the new fighter planes cost about $US170 million apiece: should such high-tech wizardry be out of contention for a nation the size of Australia?

New Zealand pulled out of ANZUS in 1985. Since then NZ has been able to cut back its defence spending to that appropriate for the situation. On a population basis, we should be spending five times as much as NZ on defence. We actually spend 15 times as much (and that discrepancy is set to grow).

So far the military support has been one way. Our guaranteed protection by our great and powerful friend has not been tested. It may turn out to be no more than what Britain’s was in 1942 - “Sorry, our hands are full. Find somebody else”.

It is a myth that the US saved Australia in the Battle of the Coral Sea. After being attacked herself, the US declared war on Japan. This meant meeting the enemy head-on at every opportunity - including the Coral Sea. We have since learned that Japan had no intention of occupying Australia as she did not have the resources.

We largely imagined that we were vulnerable in 1942. We are certainly vulnerable to being crippled as a functioning society right now.

Our communication systems can be shut down by cyber-terrorists. If our power supply is knocked out by cheap bombs in backpacks, we can no longer feed ourselves after the refrigerated food spoils. With pipelines knocked out, our hygiene ends with the last toilet flush. Traffic jams will bring all movement on roads out of the cities to a stop.

In panic we will turn on each other. And, while we disintegrate as a society, the Super Hornets will be still in their hangers. So - why are we fantasising about “air combat capability”?

Our best plan of defence is not to antagonise other nations (or religions) by having military alliances with those nations they don’t trust.