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Keywords: Military

  • MEDIA

    Sex scandals and SNAG soldiers

    • Lyn Bender
    • 21 April 2011
    5 Comments

    Listening to the Defence Force top brass talk about the 'female' cadet scandal is like taking a trip back to the 1940s. The stoic military 'warrior culture' can be tempered by encouraging men to develop appropriate self-disclosure and empathy against the dehumanising effects of training.

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  • MEDIA

    Defending defence

    • Jim Molan
    • 21 April 2011
    8 Comments

    Defence has the same problem as society in relation to young people's attitudes to sex, alcohol and social media. I wonder if we handle it better than most. The firestorm of ignorant criticism of the ADF and its 'culture' and leadership was mostly undeserved and could be counterproductive. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sex and humility in the church and the military

    • Michael Mullins
    • 18 April 2011
    16 Comments

    In the wake of the defence force Skype sex scandal, former diplomat Bruce Haigh pointed out that things start to go wrong when commanding officers forget that they are there to serve, and instead act to protect their reputations. His point holds true for unions and churches.

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  • CARTOON

    Girls in the military

    • Fiona Katauskas
    • 12 April 2011

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Responsibility to Protect is not a license to intervene

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 29 March 2011
    2 Comments

    Many regard the 'Responsibility to Protect' as a doctrine which licences military intervention when civilians' lives are threatened by murderous governments. In fact, R2P emphasises the 'responsibility to prevent' as much as it does the responsibility to intervene.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The real people of Afghanistan

    • Jan Forrester
    • 28 June 2010
    6 Comments

    I am struck by lurid online comment on whether Aussie troops should go or stay in Afghanistan, a miasma of old-left vs new-right trench exchanges, armchair military strategists and conspiracy theorists. As in the national game of Buzkashi, Afghanistan is a goat carcass fought over by a gaggle of teams.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sympathy for Israel and Palestine

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 07 June 2010
    14 Comments

    Public conversation about the military actions of Israel is always noisy and combative. Large statements of principle, contradictory stories and ad hominem arguments make evaluation difficult. In reflecting on the events of the past week I found myself returning to my first visit to Israel over 30 years ago.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Taliban friend's letters to the enemy

    • Benjamin Gilmour
    • 12 February 2010
    21 Comments

    In the tribal areas of Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, Abdullah Khan, a friend and unashamed supporter of the Pakistani Taliban, gives me a present. Slowly I open it. Lying on a bed of white fabric is a US military service medal on a ribbon. 'Just 200 rupees a piece', he tells me.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Cory Aquino and the people's triumph over tyranny

    • Fatima Measham
    • 05 August 2009
    3 Comments

    Cory Aquino will be remembered for the role she played in the Philippines' People Power Revolution of 1986. It was the first instance in modern times where civilians, not the military, unseated a corrupt leader without even a call to arms.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    No welcome stranger in racist Australia

    • Cara Munro
    • 03 June 2009
    18 Comments

    In Melbourne, 2000 Indian students gather to protest a lack of Government response to a spate of violent attacks. I am with them because I am ashamed that a white Christian woman is safer in the military capital of Rawalpindi than these students are on a train in Melbourne.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The questionable ethics of Australia's defence

    • Tony Smith
    • 05 May 2009
    6 Comments

    It is enouraging that the Government's Defence White Paper de-emphasises the US alliance in favour of self-reliance. However, we still desperately need community debate about the ways in which a military force can be used morally.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Howard asylum seeker policy must remain history

    • Michael Mullins
    • 20 April 2009
    9 Comments

    The military misadventures of nations including Australia contribute greatly to the motivation of asylum seekers. Australian immigration policy must de-emphasise border protection in favour of being a 'good international citizen'.

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