Government Wants 2,600 extra troops - is conscription on the horizon? : Melbourne Indymedia

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.

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.

While Brendan Nelson, the Defence Minister, has stated he is against conscription, the former chief of the Australian Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie, has proposed conscription be considered to address recruitment problems. This was prior to the latest announcement of boosting numbers in the army.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1705328.htm

They don't want me in the army. They don't want thousands of people with my political perspective, or something similar, in the army.

So there will be no conscription.

Conscription would be good for the army, from our point of view. Suddenly you've got conscientious objectors again, people who refuse to fight for the Government, people refusing to accept army discipline, army logic, army reasoning...

They don't want people who are capable of thinking for themselves.

Conscription is only good if you can have the conscripts rapidly killed at the front... otherwise more trouble than they're worth.

If we had conscription and the kind of ADF I'd advocate,
we'd be in Lebanon with Hezbollah, in the territories with Hamas, and in West Papua fighting Indonesia. For a start.

Military force is required in various spots around the world to put down the Yanks and Israelis and various others. A conscripted Australian army would be more likely to be deployed for these tasks than for the political projects of the opposition.

Currently, I think we need conscription so we can put together an army to take on the ADF.

john hoWARd wants militants for the US not for the reason he stated. Our region is just a side issue.

They're taking out Iran for starters and some militants won't be coming back from Afghanistan. No Doubt! That'll leave them a few short.

Who wants to be sent into a DU nukiller war for hoWARd the coward?

Lock me up first!

Apocalypse Now:

Apocalypse Now: The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the
Middle East, Part Four: Target Lebanon: The Untold Story

http://www.takingaim.info/

Military Spending Out of Control

Under the Howard Government Australian military spending is ballooning out of control. Up from an already massive $10.56 Billion Dollars in 1995-96 to an unbelievable $19.6 Billion dollars a year! This is an increase of 37% in real terms. Australia is now the 15th biggest military spender in the world!!!!

http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/15842

Australian government to deploy 150 extra troops to Afghanistan

In a TV interview on the Nine Network, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson recently revealed: “The prime minister, in his long term vision for Australia and the Australian Defence Force, has indicated to me that he thinks it important that we consider the possibility and the options for increasing the size of our defence force, and in particularly the army. Over the next few months I’ll be working through those ideas.”

http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/19765

More money for war crimes and less money for social services, nelson?

But what a load of rubbish again because Lib/Lab sold us out and there is no party opposed to these illegal and degrading wars and crimes and acts of aggression committed against the indigenous Iraqi and Afghani people!

http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/19115/index.php

Advertising blitz to bolster armed militants recruitment

The Feral Guberment is planning an advertising blitz to encourage more young people to join the armed militants

Beating the Drums of War: Army & Marines authorize "Involuntary Conscription"

The compulsory recall of ‘inactive servicemen’ in the United States might even go unnoticed in North America and most the world until analysts, historians and later generations look back at the present events unfolding in these contemporary times, years from now and place them into focus within a larger matrix of events.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/349089.html

standout feature from Brendan Nelson on the ABC this morning was his mention of the Cadets programme 'it's not compulory but people should be encouraged'

...another detail for the larger tapestry. Also classically Fascist, if I'm not mistaken.

I understand that the US army missed its recruiting targets by 8% last year. The "stop loss" program in the US means that soldiers can't resign if they want to. The National guards has been sent overseas and reservists called up.

Conscription must surely be on the US agenda.

Jackboot Johnny Howard is all for people negotiating with employers.

So surely in a capitalist society if there is a shortage of soldiers he should be able to get them by offering more money.

Probably not - he would really prefer us all to work or be soldiers at the cheapest possible rate.

I remember conscription. My father was in demos at the time. I was a bit young and it ended when Gough took over.

Conscription is not really a sensible plan- but nor was the GST, war on terror etc.

WW1 & 2 were fought with volunteers. Volunteers even if ignorant of the true circumstance of the war at least chose to be there. Why would some-one forced to go to war fight really hard? Why get yourself in a position were you could get killed for some spurious WMD or "creating democracy" lie.

If Australia is going to have to get involved with failed states we will need more soldiers- Intervention has worked to some extent in both E Timor and the Solomons. However perhaps we would be better served addressing the reasons why the states failed rather than just sending the troops in.

Australia is just too small to solve all the problems of those around us- either economically or militarily

A defiance analyst says Townsville's Lavarack Barracks may already be too large and raising another battalion of violent offenders there is overkill-ers by the feral guberment.

With the internet and You Tube and all the other internet savvy concepts that work for young adults it is high time the Left wingers started actively promoting alternative PR messages.

I know a young bloke sick of being poor just about enlisted until his older relatives talked him out of it.

I suggest the Defence Forces might actually be big enough if we had decent foreign policy positions, like an even hand with Israel and didn't willy nilly go occupying countries for 3 years on a lie. What about:
It's okay to say no thanks. Howard's kids won't join up either.

It's up to you not to hear the caller, I don't want to kill, I don't want to die
No one orders me around.
We are all individuals ....in the army?
Thou shalt not kill.
Howard want's you to shoot and be shot.

The war to end all wars is on till the war machine and its manufactury is dismantled. The first canadian division fought hard against fascism, so the victory of scrapping all war machines globally would take place and really is only then that total freedom can begin to organizationally take place. What happened in the first world war and the second was an armistice truce between two irreconciable working classes between wars, war itself will not end till the dismantling of the war machine and its manufactury globally. That really shows that bourgeois, fuedal eduacation lies to the people. Scrap the worlds war machine against peoples end war and truly. Viva socialist liberation.

This has been my Beef with the Howard government for a long time, and that is!" Howard's and his nutty cohort's continue to (govern for old people) at the expense of all other generations.

Look at housing, education, Broadband affordablity. Gen y looks to become Canon fodder for Howards vote bloc of retiring Baby Boomers.

The Liberals are fast painting Rudd as the one’s you cannot trust with our "security everything". Giving up Civil Liberty’s in the name of"security everything" is Howards master card. Tell em’ Labor will make you less secure and voters will follow Liberals everywhere.

Lest we forget, Howard is a Baby Boomer...

Howard is 68, boomers are post WWII babies -- do your sums Dingo ... boomers are the hippy generation .. not necessarily hippies tho.

what has red and white stripes and sits in corners?
a baby combing its head with a potato peerler!

comments not necessary ... bad enuff they infiltrate, now this:

conscription is always an option -- its not a matter of whether you have the right or wrong viewpoint, once you're on the front line its kill or be killed AND THEY KNOW IT! The kovco case puts another angle on it tho -- murdered, reasons unknown

However, the war is best fought from the inside, if you catch my drift.

One acid freak in the Viet days was drafted and nearly shot the instructor who taught him how to shoot -- he said it was 'fitting' to kill the man who taught you to kill -- medically discharged with pension, as it was proven his condition was ignored by recruitment officers and medical staff.

i got the same condition but no pension, time to enlist!!

I quess you read Keith Ryans. F*CK off its our turn now!
Now it imply's to you idiot!