- The Guardian
- Issue #2187
The $53 Billion defence boost
The Minister for Defence Richard Marles, in announcing this increase, said “a significant increase is needed for an era in which countries are increasingly using force rather than diplomacy.” This statement does not sufficiently explain the reason why our resources are being so exorbitantly thrown away.
The countries who use force are the US and Israel which causes the responses we have seen from Iran and the various groups around the Middle East. The US and Israel attacked Iran while it was in diplomatic negotiations and there were threats that the negotiating Iranian team recently in Pakistan would be assassinated.
It is our so-called allies who are causing the tensions. It’s long past time to unshackle ourselves from the US alliance which skews our military spending towards helping the US for global warfare.
A Defence department tasked with just defending Australia would be a lot cheaper. As well, we should follow the lead of our Pacific neighbours whose foreign policy is ’Friend to all and enemy to none.’
Our policy is ‘all the way with the USA,’ this is the reason for our exorbitant spending on military and the undue influence of arms corporations.
Denis Doherty
