Instant Erudition with Jo Dyer
Instant Erudition is the Shot’s new fortnightly column: a quick read from Jo Dyer to whet your whistle while you wait for our next feature article
And it is with this reeling wreck of a country that we have thrown in our military lot. In a book out this week, Nuked: The Submarine Fiasco that Sank Australia’s Sovereignty, Andrew Fowler takes us back through the duplicitous disaster of AUKUS in all its devastating detail: from the opportunity for a new independent geo-political strategy the submarine deal with France offered, to the all-the-way-with-USA China hawks in Defence who immediately worked to undermine it. From the ongoing uncertainty as to when – even if – we’ll ever get nuclear subs from the massively overstretched US construction yards we’re now underwriting to the fact we don’t have the technical capacity to operate them if we do; from the proliferation of ex-US military men who pocketed large amounts of Australian taxpayers’ cash to provide advice on Australia’s best interests to their advice spookily aligning with the interests of their home country and that of the weapons manufacturers on whose Boards they sit. From the transparently political games Morrison played with our national security as he obsequiously cleaved us to the US while hoping to blindside a resurgent Labor with a khaki-tinged campaign, to the craven capitulation of the ALP who embraced AUKUS within 24 hours of its announcement, its privileging of old Anglophonic allies and an anti-China military strategy a price they elected to pay to avoid being wedged in a tight political race, regardless of the ultimate cost to them, to us and the country.
olddogthoughts 