From Istanbul, with confusion
Few cities stir the adventurer’s soul as Istanbul – that vast, sprawling mass straddling Europe and Asia which acts as…
Facebook: hate speech or idiom?
In the annals of political skulduggery, there have been fewer brutal acts than the assassination of Julius Caesar on the…
Albanese snubs CHOGM summit
Prime Minister Anthony ‘My Government’ Albanese’s enthusiasm to strut the world diplomatic stage has already begun waning. He’s announced that…
A South Australian perspective
Inserted appropriately between Australia’s buttock states – Western Australia and Victoria – lies that curious social phenomenon of South Australia.…
A policeman's lot is not a happy one
When constabulary duty’s to be done, to be done, a policeman’s lot is not a happy one… On October 25,…
Where are the strategists and tacticians?
There’s nothing like the whiff of distant grapeshot to energise Australia’s plethora of armchair military strategists. Military professionals, on the…
People in glass houses...
Every family has one, the curmudgeonly old relative who broods annoyingly in the background – except for special family occasions…
Ambassador Kennedy – an alternate view
William Shakespeare captured literature’s most famous feud – the Capulets vs the Montagues – with the immortal line, ‘What’s in…
Covid-free and painfully satirical
In 1951, British futurist Arthur C Clarke wrote a short story envisaging a journey into space which evolved into the…
Last drinks for the Canberra bubble
It’s ironic that a federal minister should again promote alcoholic abstinence as a cure for whatever allegedly ails (or should…
Please accept my resignation from the Church with immediate effect
Dear Sir/Madam/Whomever it may concern, I write as, until now, a life-long communicant of the Church of England, or whatever…
Don’t forget Labor’s still loathsome
Prussian soldier strategist Carl von Clausewitz is best remembered for his statement, “War is the continuation of political intercourse with…
I don’t like Pauline Hanson – but don’t like her being censored
I hold no brief for P Hanson who is a vacuous, shallow opportunist. Neither do I know Jessica Rowe who,…
Time for ADF chief Angus Campbell to go before he’s pushed
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has never shirked from hard decisions, and for the first time in some years a minister…
Finally, some sense on subs
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has long signalled he was open to ending a ban on nuclear power in Australia. He…
ANZUS, Afghanistan – and where’s Billy Hughes or John Monash when you need them?
The last Australians to stand up to bullying by the United States were World War I General John Monash and…
Can we get our money back on ADF chief Angus Campbell?
In signals intelligence the term “look through” describes the tactic of penetrating deliberate noise and interference to reveal the real…
Scott Morrison and our Afghan allies: as shameful as Whitlam with South Vietnam
On August 18, 1971 then prime minister William McMahon announced the final withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Vietnam. It…
Our Afghanistan shame
There are multiple historic examples why the nation known variously as Afghanistan has been termed “the graveyard of empires”. This…
A Reader’s Digest manifesto for our new woke military?
ITEM: The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Saturday, July 3 2021: The Australian Defence Force has turned to some of the world’s…
Curious… The woker it gets, the greater the ADF’s PR problems
As the inimitable Sir Humphrey Appleby once opined, “Minister, two basic rules of government: Never look into anything you don’t…
The challenge of Anzac Day, 2021
The extended ADF community has possibly never been so divided against itself as it is right now. The ADF’s current…
Why do our black lives matter warriors ignore the deaths on our doorstep, in PNG?
Just to Australia’s north across a contiguous border, tens of thousands of Papua New Guineans are at constant risk from…
Jim Molan determined to win the fight of his life
There are times when a battle needs to be fought and mates need to stand up and be counted. Many…
Neither age nor bureaucracy will condemn them: Anzac marches must be on
Barring further acts of political cowardice, Australians will commemorate Anzac Day 2021 as they have done for almost 106 years.…
