Hello Gibo,
Your "gunclubbers and friends" were allegedly what concerned the Japanese when the wanted us to be part of the "South-East Asia co-Prosperity Sphere" back in the early 1940s.

A combination of distance, no forage to be found, and in their view, husbands AND wives that not only knew how to load and fire readily available firearms, but in the Japanese assessment, also had the skill-at-arms to set sights and fire effectively and without haste.
Believe you know what I mean?
I'm assuming you understand "Oath of Allegiance" - with relation to a citizen's personal commitment to the defence of this piece of geography - rather than, say, Kevin's or Joel's pelt?

No way anyone can be "rude/offensive when they speak truth".

Perspective. - J.Fitz was an auto electrician until he won a raffle.
Winning the raffle has him as Defence Minister now.

And I'm supposed to be impressed?
Does winning raffles impart GODHEAD - or just provide profits?
Well, according to the ABC and a few others positioned to take a rake themselves - that situation is not immediately clear.

Your paragraph 3 - Unfortunately other than Defence Programs as are in-situ, there is probably little stored away to the north and north-west enabling citizens to be part of the defence of Australia if the cack did hit the fan.
On the other hand I would quietly suggest some bipartisan effort has been expended making allowance for the worst case scenario.
I would add that some 'real Australians' might be involved with the planning whose security status might well be higher than mine.

Putting it bluntly, some Australians have a family tree going back past 1788.
They may not like what is happening in Oz too much. But like the rest of us, they've signed up for the long haul.
I'm speaking about a lot of very capable people in NorForce.
Let's leave some of the feedback to them.
The result might surprise us.

Thanks A Non Farmer.
I believe what you wrote about the Japanese fearing the skills we had during WW2 is correct. I often heard stories as a young teenager of how the number of "citizen guns" also more than likely kept them away.

That changed with the disarming of the citizens during the Howard period (I dont think we should have the guns with the citzs but I do think there needs to be an increase in citz guns in Defence arsenals ready to be handed out).

The distance for supply lines for an enemy is quite vast as well.
An army friend say if China came down one day, to claim Australia as their NEW SOUTH CHINA/NEW CHINA, one of the big problems would be their supply lines over such a distance.
Thats goes in our favour in time of war.
The things that dont go in our favour are the lack of preparation today (2008) for a sudden change in the world military climate.

We simply cant leave the people massed in major cities, untrained and with no equipment for too many more years.
Anyway I took my concerns to America a number of times. Maybe they can bring pressure into the citz army thing. They have heaps to lose if Australia falls one day.
Im not too sure who owns OZ in 2008, us or them. Their secret bases in Australia are vital to their future survival and they wont want them over-run.
The problem here is we are so apathetic to everything.
Indonesia and China both drool over our easy going ways.

Thanks folks. I dont know that all that much more is going to be said on this thread.
Belly.
It was good to see your support with your knowledge of the SOUTH IRIAN maps. Many will deny it existed but not believers in truth. Those maps was there.

Steel Mann.
It was good to get that reference to the book BELOW THE LINE by Eric Wilmott.
On one site I saw they had a photo of the book cover and it did indeed have a map drawn on it with all of the land above Townsville marked as THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH IRIAN, showing that Eric Wilmott also had knowledge of earlier maps on Indonesian classroom walls calling OZ that exact name.

Its a pity I didnt get many people especially young folk saying what they thought of serving Australia.

Defence, if they have any wisdom, will have to work on the youth of Australia real soon, if they want to do proper defence.
They might start by getting rid of the bastardisation the young ones will experience at boot camps.
THERES NO NEED FOR IT.

Gibo,

Good topic, as I served in the army in a previous life, I would volunteer to defend Australia. I believe there are 2 cases one should volunteer to fight: 1) where a clear and present danger is eminent on Australian soil. 2) Where a limited surgical intervention on foreign soil is a must to preempt a danger to Australia (within intl laws). I can't think of any other scenario that I would support or volunteer for.

Peace,

On topic re youth, seems there is a trend with youth in their twenties to talk / negotiate any conflict without resorting to wars. It sounds a bit rosy at times but it is still better than the opposite view.

I don't think its restricted to Australian youth. Young people today tend to have internet friends and are well travelled. It makes them believe that all people have the same needs and the world is getting too small to consider wars. If you look at youth in the EU (French/German/British) today they jointly engage in environmental and social activities and many even inter-marry. 50 years ago they were all taught to hate each other.

You sure paint an interesting picture Fellow_Human of todays youth.

Its been a long time since war touched Australia or when a large number of OZ soldiers went overseas... and people do tend to forget.
I guess youth can get detached from the way the world has been, if conflicts are few and far between...not that that is bad, the few and far between.

War cycles around (The Holy Bible actually says/Ecclesiastes 3:8/ that "there is a season, a time, for peace and a season, a time, for war) and we have to be ready.

Im really glad we have people like Steven Spielberg, a man from my own generation, who have the knowledge that there are going to be wars and who keep that knowledge alive with films like Schindlers List, Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan.
If the knowledge of all of the good efforts to save democracy and Christianity in times of war is lost we go to sleep and enemies can sneak up without warning.
I hope Ive shown here, in this thread, that both China and Indonesia have had plans to sneak up on Australia.
I dont think those plans have ever been shelved.