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Defending the unprepared. (Ryan).

Article Excerpt
WHEN AUSTRALIANS really get stuck into fighting a war, few nations do it better. The valour and effectiveness of our fighting men are acknowledged, and most acknowledged where it matters most--by their enemies who meet them on the battlefield. That is, after we have properly got stuck into it, which is usually about two years after the conflict began.

During that "warm-up" period, we are likely to get belted up all over the place, suffering defeats, withdrawals, brave stands to the last man, and the futile death and maiming of thousands of the best young men of that generation.

These disastrous starts are our own fault, because we'd rather think about the footy than the future. "She'll be right, mate! She's apples!" is not too cruel a caricature of Australia's traditional approach to foreign policy and defence.

Why do we go on acting as though the world were a safe and friendly place? Or as if the envy, cruelty, greed and violence that are part of essential human nature have softened over the last few thousand years? They haven't, of course; every front page and every television screen daily spread before our eyes the compelling and repellent evidence that the Old Adam (and the Old Eve) are continuing to replicate the inexorable...

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