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Talisman sabre military exercises, war and the environment : Comments
By Sue Wareham, published 10/7/2009Armies damage the environment even when they aren't at war.
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Wouldn’t it be great to know just what the threat might be to our nation from aggressors? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have confidence that Australia should follow the Cost Rican example? But we just can’t.
I feel that Oz is a whole lot more vulnerable to attempted takeover than little Costa Rica or Kiwiland…or maybe they will all be highly vulnerable in the coming years of heightened population pressures, desperation and aggression.
So as much as I’d love to condone the dissolution or major windback of our military, so that the resultant enormous free-up of funds could be better spent, I just can’t.
We’ve got to retain a significant military presence, even if it would be ineffectual in the event of an Indonesian or Chinese full-frontal attack. And of course we’ve got to remain in the good books with the big ol’ US of A so that they’ll help us out if we really need it.
But surely we could make our military more civilly useful, so that rather than expending huge sums of money…and oil…on war games, they can gain experience and do some useful civil activity at the same time. Just how this might happen, I’m not sure at the moment. But it’s surely got to have potential.