Former prime minister Tony Abbott has criticised the Albanese government for what he describes as Australia’s “shameful” failure to support the United States and Israel as they strike Iran.
In Abbott’s telling, Australia has abandoned a proud tradition.
“Australia is the only country that’s stood by America’s side in every major conflict since the Great War,” he wrote, listing the Korean War, the Vietnam War, both Gulf War conflicts, the War in Afghanistan and the campaign against Islamic State.
But Abbott’s own argument contains an awkward detail:
“We weren’t asked. We weren’t consulted. We weren’t even advised.”
It is difficult to join a war you haven’t been invited to.
Australia has indeed fought alongside the United States in many conflicts over the past seventy years. But these were not impulsive acts of loyalty performed out of habit. They were decisions made within formal coalitions, usually after consultations between allies and, at least in theory, after weighing the strategic risks.
That is how alliances normally function.
If the United States and Israel did not consult Australia about these strikes, it suggests something important. Either the operation was intended to remain limited, or Washington had no expectation that Australia would play a role.
In either case, Australia volunteering itself for military involvement would be less a demonstration of alliance solidarity than an act of unnecessary enthusiasm.
Abbott frames the issue as one of national security. But for many Australians the real lesson of recent history is caution.
The legacy of the Iraq War and the long years in Afghanistan left a deep imprint on the Australian public. Both conflicts were entered with confidence and moral certainty. Both ultimately produced far more ambiguity than victory.
Australians have grown understandably wary of joining distant wars in complex regions where the outcomes are uncertain and the objectives often shift.
That caution is not weakness. It is experience.
The Albanese government has stated that it supports preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. That position is hardly controversial. Many governments around the world hold the same view.
But supporting an objective is not the same as volunteering for a war.
Australia’s alliance with the United States remains one of the pillars of its foreign policy. It is reflected in intelligence cooperation, military interoperability and long-term strategic projects such as the AUKUS security pact.
None of that requires Australia to automatically join every conflict involving its allies.
Alliances are partnerships, not enlistment contracts.
In truth, Abbott’s criticism reflects an older political instinct: the belief that loyalty to Washington is best demonstrated on the battlefield. For decades that assumption shaped Australian strategic thinking.
But the country Abbott governed no longer exists in quite the same form. Australia today is more cautious, more diverse in its global relationships and far more sceptical about military adventures in the Middle East.
In that context, restraint is not humiliation. It is simply prudence.
Abbott may believe Australia should be standing shoulder to shoulder with its allies in another Middle Eastern war.
But before volunteering the country for combat, one question seems reasonable.
If nobody asked Australia to fight, why is Tony Abbott so eager to sign us up?
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Abbott, a totally un-Australian catholic mediaeval animal bowel escapee is universally utterly worthless. Misfit, shithead, treacherous, foul, and a slur on educated decent civilised balanced fair thought. Poxery…so, let this reeking arsehole fix the bayonet, kiss the union jack, his birth flag, charge the hordes and leave us to tut tut.
listing the Korean War, the Vietnam War, both Gulf War conflicts, the War in Afghanistan and the campaign against Islamic State.
And how many of those wars did Abbott serve in?
Great one for advocating for killing Muslims, but Abbott does not seem to be one to get his own hands dirty.
He should be careful on the company he keeps offshore, while dissing, in an effort to wedge the Australian government.
Abbott is a foreign agent via several offshore NGO &/or GONGOs and visiting fellow of the Danube Institute, partnered with fossil fueled Koch Heritage Foundation (see Project Esther vs Palestine) with support of PM ‘mini Putin’ Orbán and Russian oil; anti-Ukraine, anti-EU, Islamophobic and anti-semitic.
Abbott has been mute on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is also mute on Russian GRU sending a team to help Orbán’s corrupt ‘family values’ regime in next month’s election; then again much indie media (except Crikey and The AIM) share influencers and contributors from the same ecosystem?
Whole conga line of Anglo &/or European grifters masquerading as centrist journalists and/or geopolitical experts influenced by or in same ecosystem including Glenn Diesen, John Mearsheimer, (Charles Koch & Putin’s Valdai) Jeffrey Sachs (risible Rockefellers, Steve Bannon (& George Galloway) et al.
Following fossil fueled ‘segregation economics’, MAGA white Christian nationalism, eugenics and Russia; many offhsore claim that the latter’s RT is often indistinguishable from Murdoch’s Fox News?
@ Phil Pryor:
If only this loathsome creature’s rwnj schemes were as insubstantial as his orificial exudations!
@Gonggongche:
Yep, how dazzling is a warmonger’s courage in sending others off to fight illegal wars.
And the special courage required to ensure there are no witnesses to the thuggish intimidation called upon when chicanery fails. (Such inimitable qualities of gallantry and integrity were first demonstrated back in 1977 when Abbott punched a wall beside the head of Barbara Ramjan – now OAM – who won a student election he thought was in the bag.)
Yet there he was, post-politics, in bloviating defence of his friend and “saint for our times”, the late purgatorial pedofilo cardinale Pell.
Now, as Andrew Smith correctly notes, this promiscuous creature is a foreign agent for all things alt-right.
Oh dear ….. Toxic RAbbott has had another brain fart ….. send the next generation of fine young Australian military personnel to serve as unpaid mercenaries in the USA (Undemocratic States of Apartheid) & ZIONAZI war of attrition against Indigenous Palestinian land owners and the Muslim world in general so that Butcher Bibi may form Greater Isrevil between the Nile River and the Euphrates River.
This continues the US domination of the world’s known & potential fossil fuel reserves through puppet regimes.
However, in this case, the US government has been a ZIONAZI puppet since at least 2000 because of divided fealties of US government officials who are also ZIONAZI supporters, working within US government departments.
How did Isrevil get the atomic bomb??
Australia should stay right out of this USA-ZIONAZI imperialist war.
@ Phil Pryor: RAbbott, like all other LIARBRAL$ Prim Monsters who have committed young Australians to the imperialist ambitions of other nations, will never have to go to the sharp end. Instead, he will likely follow the Robert Menzies model (resigned his Australian Army commission on the first day of WWI), and resign his Australian citizenship without any fear of being exported back to his own country for his ineptitude.
It’s a crying shame that the Mad Monk didn’t take a vow of silence.
Meanwhile, one BRICS member is bombing other BRICS members
It’s only a few days since one or two here were suggesting we should join BRICS!
Substitute ‘Albanese’ for ‘Abbott’ and add a dash of Yahoo and what gets served up?
“We are not protagonists. What we are doing is providing for the defence of the UAE and of Australian citizens.”
Standing with USA does not necessarily make a great nation. Standing with USA is more likely to incriminate Australia in USA’s war crimes.
Can we volunteer Tony on the front line, Australia’s contribution to the US?
So says the moron who reinstated knighthoods and then gave one to Prince Philip.
Trump claims US has most powerful defence (war) force ever. He does not need our help, except maybe we buy US weapons only to use them to fight their wars.
Australia does not need to get directly involved. However, having some presence in the region in support of UAE and Australian expats might be a good thing, maybe?
WE SHOULD NOT SUPPORT TRAMP.
He’s suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome, in addition to resentment which pretty much sums up his life.
Have no interest in his dummy spits.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/19/how-relevance-deprivation-syndrome-has-liberated-me-in-my-retirement
Tony Abbott is a fool, a dangerous idiot, a classic Right Winger always ready to sacrifice someone else.
@ AC: Relevance?? One ZIONAZI politician is using the ZIONAZI sympathisers & members in the US government agencies to bomb the life out of Indigenous Palestinians whose only crime is owning the land that the ZIONAZIS covet.
Toxic RAbbott is only good for strutting about in his budgie smugglers and fantasising about being an RFS member.
Fine, Tones. Go and enlist. Volunteer to be the first pair of boots on the ground over there.