There is little doubt that the US is the mightiest military power in human history. At a time when Australia’s ability to defend itself is at its lowest in one hundred years, we need the US, as our major ally, to retain its superpower status as a deterrent against foreign aggression.
With Trump’s return to the White House, we can rest easy that our enemies will think twice before acting. He will restore morale to the West and give other Western governments and opportunity to restore their faith in Western ideals.
That’s because combat power relies on three capabilities, each equally important. First is firepower. On today’s battlefields, guided missiles and smart bombs of all types are key.
Second is manoeuvrability. There is no point having loads of firepower if it cannot be applied where it needs to go. Drones, HIMARS, and stealth platforms like fighters, bombers, and submarines are key to the effective application of fire. Defence networks like Israel’s Iron Dome are also clearly a feature of modern warfare and the ability to manoeuvre unimpeded by enemy actions.
Third is morale. Morale is the ticker that enables soldiers to fight for what they believe in and to win against an enemy that is fighting because it has been ordered to do so. It also relies on the morale of the civilian people. During the Battle of Britain, Londoners famously snubbed Hitler’s scare tactics and the national mood was key to winning the war.
Meanwhile, Australian governments have been completely hopeless in ensuring our ability to defend ourselves. The retirement of the F-111 and the Royal Australian Navy’s inability to launch an effective sea-air gap interception to Australia’s north mean we do not have any real deterrent. While some of our equipment is cutting edge, our inability to meet recruiting targets, the woeful state of maintenance of equipment, and constant cutting back on numbers of equipment, means we are as weak as ever. Wavering support for Aukus verges on the criminal in the absence of such a capability.
The US maintains the most advanced military in the world with capabilities that dwarf its nearest rivals. That is not to say that the US has the ability to fight a war on all fronts, but it does have the ability to make authoritarian regimes think twice before acting aggressively. Australia relies on this fact.
However, liberal democracies have been under attack from authoritarian regimes and useful idiots in the West have rallied to the call of greyzone operations by our enemies. Greyzone operations relate to attempts to disrupt the morale of an enemy through actions that are not quite aggressive nor considered acts of war or espionage. However, the intent of greyzone activities is to disrupt morale.
There have been allegations that bomb threats at voting booths during the US election were made from (as opposed to by) Russia. Such activities occur in the ‘greyzone’ and attempt to disrupt civilian institutions to foment dissent and to reduce morale.
In recent times, the world has looked to the Ukraine as an example of the power of morale. Whether or not everyone shares the defiant sentiment that has held back one of the world’s superpowers is irrelevant – it is not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog that matters. Similarly, Israel has since picked up the torch while many in the West refuse to stand up for themselves.
Repeated surveys indicate that fewer Australians would be prepared to fight to defend our country. Compare this to the thousands who heeded the call in the first and second world wars and Korea, Malaya, and Vietnam, and it is clear that, at scale, we lack the moral courage of previous generations.
Part of the problem is our education system. In my primary schools in the seventies and early eighties in both NSW and Queensland, we sang God Save the Queen, then Advance Australia Fair, and saluted the blue ensign flag at every school parade. We played cricket and football and netball and vigoro – all physically demanding sports that hardened the mind and body.
It is no secret that the sporting life sustained the British Empire for hundreds of years. Australians routinely dominate international sports competitions on a per capita basis because that British tradition is part of our tradition. So many of my overseas friends cannot swim, they don’t know how to replace a tap washer or change the oil in their car – they simply lack the self-reliance that Australians once took for granted.
Which brings me to Trump’s win. Australia needs the US as its ally. This is no alliance based on convenience, but one forged in blood. Unlike potential new alliances that some suggest we should pursue, blood is thicker than water and blood is the bond between Australia and the US. Decolonisers might re-think their ludicrous ideas because without the tens of thousands of US military personnel who died defending Australia in the second world war, there would be different colonisers who may not have protected their right to whinge and moan about their privileges so readily.
Harris would have presented as a weak and indecisive leader. So much so that the third element of combat power, morale, would have been so low that the other two elements would be reduced. Such a moment in history is all our enemies need to make the first move. In Australia, so many of our political representatives and our people are self-loathing and ultimately weak. They are inviting an opportunistic aggressor.
Trump is not weak. When Trump was last in power, Kim Jong-un was his fanboy. Russia and China were cautious. With Trump back again, and J.D. Vance as President in waiting for 2028 and 2032 (as per our editor Rowan Dean’s recent prediction), the light at the end of the tunnel is not a freight train heading our way but the promise of a new beginning. In my opinion, Trump’s win means we’ve narrowly avoided a war we couldn’t have stopped with a weak US president. It also gives us an opportunity to wind back the Woke mind virus and restore our morale at home.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is a political scientist and political commentator. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILTA), and a Member of the Royal Society of NSW. He is National Vice President of the Telecommunications Association, Chairman of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter of CILTA, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and was appointed to the College of Experts at the Australian Research Council in 2022. All opinions in this article are the author’s own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other person or organisation.
