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By Andrew Murray SM
If we go to war with China, my share of the fighting will be to deal with 64 late-middle-aged Chinese gentlemen, assuming that in each country the load of war is
spread evenly across all age groups and both sexes. It will be helpful, if by then a change of government has seen Paul Hogan become Foreign Minister and Arnold Schwarzenegger become Defence Minister, the latter
made possible by our ever closer links with the US.
A war would, of course, happen very differently, and one hopes that no such conflict ever eventuates, but the madness of it is implied in the current
Commonwealth Government’s response to both United States-China relations and the proposed missile defence system. While the United States and China were facing off over American spy flights and Taiwan, we had our
own little arm wrestle on the side. Australia has been one of the very few nations to jump to support the United States’ missile defence system, a program that will breach current international treaties limiting an
arms race.
What Australia gets for its unqualified support of aggressive American initiatives is not clear. It is hardly security, because the US would be unlikely in its present frame of mind to commit the
kinds of forces, namely ground troops, that would be needed in the kinds of conflict in which Australia is most likely to become involved. Trade is also tricky, because there profits rule, and we have already had to
take the US to the World Trade Organisation over the sale of lamb.
It is more likely that the Australian Government is in awe of so-called military intelligence and advanced military technology, though these
come at a high price and are little talked about.
We are living through a dangerous moment in the US. In a pattern going back at least to the War of 1812, upon the accession to power of the Republican Party
after difficult years under a Democratic government, nothing is surer than that the new government will become warlike in its foreign relations and cut taxes. In 1812, this meant a comical war that nobody could
afford. Australia would be wise to stand back and let the Bush regime settle in before making any firm commitments.
It is part of the mythology of the United States to need an enemy, and they have been
looking around for one since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is to be hoped that they get over their fascination with China, a nation that is at the moment interested in other things but which will react to
aggression however subtle.
The talk of rogue states is hocus-pocus. It is sufficient to cause paranoia in the US but only a flimsy cover for a policy designed to beat a new and major enemy, whenever one is
found or generated.
Father Murray teaches philosophy at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
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