Government Wants 2,600 extra troops - is conscription on the horizon?
by Takver and Joseph Toscano Thursday August 24, 2006 at 11:40 PM

The Howard government has announced a $10 billion plan over 11 years to boost the armed forces by an extra 2,600 soldiers. Greens Senator Kerry Nettle attacked the plan saying "The answer is not to get a bigger army but to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and rethink the ADF's involvement in supporting US foreign policy adventures,". The rationale for this increase is to prepare the defence force for intervention in more failing states in the asia/pacific region. The question arises with the amount of military nationalism occurring recently, are we being prepared for the reintroduction of conscription?

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Prime Minister John Howard, with Australian Defence Force chiefs around him, said that a bigger army was self-evident. "This country faces ongoing and, in my opinion, increasing instances of destabilised and failing states in our own region," he said. "I believe in the next 10 to 20 years Australia will face a number of situations the equivalent of, or potentially more challenging, than the Solomon Islands and East Timor."

Already we see instability on the border between West Papua and Papua New Guinea with the Indonesian military making incursions and generating terror on both sides of the border, and perhaps planning an invasion. Will Australia be called upon soon by the PNG Government to assist in this area?

The Government will step up recruitment advertising, but what happens when numbers fail to meet the projections? Melbourne anarchist and broardcaster, Joseph Toscano, takes up the question of conscription:

It is important not to be swayed by the Federal government's assurances that it is not considering the introduction of conscription to overcome the obvious military recruitment problems it is now facing. If the Howard led government wins the next election, conscription will be high on its agenda.

An unstable Asia Pacific region, its hundred year war on 'terror' and its increasing dependence on the US alliance, will leave it with no choice but to introduce conscription to bolster the Australian armed forces. Continuing stories about problems filling current military quotas, defence expert reports that the Australian military is having troubles fulfilling its current and future military commitments, the Howard government's attempts to rewrite the events surrounding the Vietnam War and the promotion of a nostalgic view of the role of conscription during that war, are just a few warning signs that public opinion is being softened for the inevitable introduction of conscription.

Considering the important role conscription has played in the development of the Australian psyche, it is ironic that such little attention is paid to it in this country's history and public celebrations. The useless sacrifice of thousands of young Australians lives in countless overseas wars, from the British foray into Sudan in the 1880's to the deployment of Australian troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, are glorified on a daily basis, while the sacrifices made by the millions of Australian who successfully fought the introduction of conscription in two referendums in 1916 and 1917 and the millions who brought the Vietnam War machine to a halt in Australia are ignored, belittled and written out of the history books.

Without the efforts of successful Australian anti conscription movements, tens of thousands of other young Australians would have been sacrificed for God, Queen and Country brigade on foreign killing fields by stay at home patriots who have no qualms about using the lives of other people's children to promote their grandiose nationalist agendas - Lest We Forget.

AUSTRALIAN RADICAL HISTORY
FACTS AND MORE FACTS!!

Listening to the dribble that is being bandied about the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan and Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, you could be forgiven for thinking that our involvement was justified. Although politicians make the decisions about what wars we become involved in, armed forces personnel are not immune from criticism for their participation.

Not everybody agreed with Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. Not everybody did their 'duty'. Millions of people were involved in activities to stop the war. Thousands of potential conscripts refused to register; others were jailed for refusing to go to Vietnam. People had choices, some chose to do what the government wanted them to do - participate in an illegal unnecessary war that resulted in the deaths of over 500 Australians, 50,000 Americans and over 3 million Vietnamese and others chose to resist the government and refused to participate in the draft, preferring to go to jail than fight a war they did not believe in.

The real heroes were not those who saluted, followed orders, died unnecessarily in Vietnam or returned home to be shunned by their fellow citizens. There were no real heroes during the Vietnam War, just victims of government policy. One group followed orders, another group decided to do something about the killing. Without their sacrifices, another 60,000 young Australians would have been sent to Vietnam, another 500 would have died and many more lives would have been ruined than have already been ruined.

Let's not let the Howard government rewrite history to suit their current war plans. The celebrations surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, the pious words and the apologies from politicians and community leaders who are looking for a new generation to sacrifice themselves for God, Queen and Country, need to be openly challenged if we do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Sources:

1. The Age 24/08/06: Army gets 2,600 extra troops

2. Melbourne Indymedia 23/08/06: Report shows Indonesian military treats PNG as its own territory

3. Anarchist Age Weekly Review Number 705 21st August - 27th August 2006

4. Australian Draft Resistance and the Vietnam War

5. Documents and photos - Queensland Women and Conscription during the Vietnam War

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