Defence Minister Brendon Nelson is spot on with his analogy between the war in Iraq and the battle for Kokoda.
In 1942 our diggers, many of them untrained militia soldiers, faced a fanatical enemy that had not been defeated since the bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941. Japanese society was led by militarists who indoctrinated their soldiers in the warrior code of bushido. They believed in the divinity of their Emperor and in their divine mission to establish a co-prosperity sphere in South-East Asia and the Pacific.
Their brutal acts of savagery against civilian populations and Australian POWs are well documented. Acts of mercy or surrender were not part of their creed. The recent book ‘Hellfire’ by Cameron Forbes recorded ‘the troops of God could behave like troops of the devil. They were shaped by the nature of Japanese society and the psychological manipulations of the militarists’.
Australia had never before faced such a threat to its culture, values, freedom and way of life.
But while our diggers fought desperate battles against overwhelming odds on our very doorstep, others were not taking it so seriously.
Despite the urgings of wartime Prime Minister John Curtin many continued to live the high life and objected to the austerity measures necessary to support the war effort. Waterfront unions refused to load our ships and went on strike for better pay and more ice-cream while our diggers fought on Kokoda. It is a shameful chapter in our history.
Despite this apathy Australian and American forces defeated the Japanese and successfully defended our freedom. We must keep in mind that whilst Australians fought heroically in naval, air and land battles in the Pacific it was the might of the American war machine that won the war and saved our country. We could not have done it alone.
Terrorism represents just as big a threat to our culture, values and freedom as did our war against the Japanese.
It is war with a different form but the enemy is just as fanatical as the Japanese were in 1942. There was no room for mercy in the warrior code of Bushido and there is none in the radical Islamic code of Jihad. Yesterday’s kamikaze pilot was just as committed as a today’s Jihadist.
In 1942 the Japanese were defeated before they could land on our shores. In 2007 the Jihadists are already embedded in our society. The only strategic option we have is to fight the war against terrorism in the countries that spawn it, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
America is the only country with the resources and the will to lead the offensive against the war on global terrorism. Other allies like Australia can make a significant contribution by providing political support and military assistance.
History has shown that if we stick with America they will stick with us.
Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd now wants to risk our national insurance policy with the United States by advocating a withdrawal from Iraq. This is a reckless policy in today’s strategic environment.
If Australia takes the Rudd appeasement option and withdraws from Iraq we will have to brace ourselves for the cost of going it alone. An increase in defence spending from the current level of around 1.9 per cent of GNP to a more realistic figure of 3.5 to 4 percent would involve the closure of hundreds of schools and hospitals.
It is therefore incumbent on Rudd to nominate where the savings will come from to go it alone in our fight against terrorism. How many schools and hospitals will have to close? How many national infrastructure projects will have to be abandoned? These questions have to be answered before he takes the populist and irresponsible action of abandoning our American allies in Iraq.
Our diggers in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting a real war. Just as real as Isurava, Brigade Hill, Templeton’s Crossing, Buna, Gona, Milne Bay and Shaggy Ridge. They are aware, just as our Kokoda veterans were in 1942, that this is a battle against a fanatical enemy intent on destroying our western culture, values and way of life. The objectives of the enemy are the same – only the form of warfare is different.
Tags: International Affairs, Iraq, Kokoda, Liberal
