In Afghanistan we were led into the conflict by the USA and stood beside them, loyally, for 20 years – until they decided it was time to leave. Few questions have been asked about Australia’s subservient role. The thinking observer can see that the influence of the USA was paramount throughout the Afghanistan and Iraq debacles.
Much of the attention on the AUKUS agreement has been focused on the matter of nuclear-powered submarines and all the questions that their potential acquisition raise. Entirely appropriate as this is, it does miss an underlying theme of the agreement – the enduring process of Australia’s foreign and defence policies becoming integrated with those of the USA.
I arrived in Australia in 1970, as a young graduate convinced that the USA was conducting a war in Vietnam that was wrong in every way. It delighted me to find a vibrant ant-war movement in action here and I joined the street marches of the time. I relaxed during the Whitlam years, thinking that the nation was moving in an enlightened direction. Sadly, I can now see that any movement away from US influence was short-lived.
2003 saw the biggest anti-war demonstrations this nation and the wider world have ever seen. Clearly, the people of the world wanted (and still want) peace. That the people were ignored and Australia joined the infamous invasion of Iraq clearly demonstrate what a huge influence the USA establishment has. Subsequent events made it clear that we had been hoodwinked into joining that war. It should have been well understood that our ‘good friend’ had lied to us. Trust should have been severely damaged, but events proved that not to be the case.
For in 2011, for reasons that have never been properly explained, Australia agreed to the stationing of US marines in Darwin. This was a decision of extraordinary significance. All the shallow arguments about increased training opportunities and interoperability turn pale beside the incontrovertible fact that we had allowed a body of armed personnel onto our territory who had (and have) no responsibility to our government but take their orders from the Pentagon. Foreign forces on domestic territory is a grave matter for any self-respecting nation, usually only contemplated in dire situations of actual threat – unless it is a case of alien domination.
Since then we have become one of the USA’s biggest customers for weaponry and weapons systems, especially the F35 boondoggle.
In Afghanistan we were led into the conflict by the USA and stood beside them, loyally, for 20 years – until they decided it was time to leave. Few questions have been asked about Australia’s subservient role. The thinking observer can see that the influence of the USA was paramount throughout the Afghanistan and Iraq debacles.
From all this, it is apparent that decisions on matters of enormous strategic significance are being taken in a ‘bi-partisan’ manner – meaning that there is no need for them to be debated in the parliament. Consequently, there is little public discussion about them. In this area, we are effectively in a One-Party State, being governed by a one-party system, deeply influenced by the USA.
However, despite this long history of Australia having military/strategic decisions manipulated by the USA, we have now taken another, breathtaking step along the same path – a path that, incidentally, has war at its end-point. We have agreed with the UK and the USA to enter a new pact, AUKUS.
Without even mentioning the specifics of the submarine matter, the agreement will see more US military assets stationed here; more military materiel stored here; the possibility of entertaining nuclear-powered US vessels; more visits from US aircraft including bombers; the possibility that said vessels and aircraft may carry nuclear weapons (whether that is confirmed or denied!), and a further tightening of the links between our and the USA’s military machines. The result will be still greater US influence on Australia’s military posture. Just as each successive AUSMIN meeting announces a further enhancement of the relationship, AUKUS is nothing but the latest move in a process that has been going on for decades.
However, just as the 2011 decision to bring in the US marines stirred a small band of activists to get together and create IPAN (the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network), so might AUKUS serve to re-energise the peace movement. Zoom meetings took place across the nation within days of the announcement, and major demonstrations are being planned (watch this space!).
In so far as the submarine question has opened the door to debate about nuclear power and nuclear weapons, there is a strong likelihood that AUKUS is going to (at last) bring about some unity of purpose between the peace and environment movements. It is high time such unity of purpose was found. Faced as we are with the threats of war (i.e. nuclear war) on the one hand, and climate crisis on the other – it is time for the people to make their voices heard. We can have no sustainable future without peace, and we can have no peace without a sustainable future.
Nick Deane
October 27, 2021
ND is convenor of the Marrickville Peace Group and one of two NSW representatives on the national committee of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN). He has a degree in Sociology, was a Federal Public Servant until 2012 and is now retired.
