We're not warlike, and that's why we'll keep fighting, says Australian PM John Howard

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | November 11, 2003 | Mark Riley in London

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Prime Minister John Howard has committed Australia to continue taking a frontline role in international military campaigns against terrorism and other challenges, in a major speech reflecting on the nation's military past.

In a speech due to be delivered early this morning, Mr Howard said Australians were not a warlike people but accepted their responsibility to fight to defend democratic principles and the concept of personal freedom around the world.

"If I might slightly refashion a well-known statement of John Kennedy's, Australians have never asked others to do for us what we have been unwilling to do for ourselves," he said.

John Howard at the Australian-British War Memorial in London. Photo: Pat Scala

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Australia's peacekeeping efforts in East Timor were the most clear contemporary demonstrations of that national ethos, he said.

Mr Howard was due to deliver the speech early this morning at Australia House in London before a group of World War II veterans who have travelled to Britain for the dedication of an Australian war memorial at Hyde Park.

Mr Howard said wars of the type his audience knew had been replaced by the new and brutal challenge of terrorism.

"The coming years will present every society with challenges that none of us could have contemplated even three years ago," Mr Howard said.

"Australia will play its part. We will continue to determine our own future in our own independent way."

Delivered against the backdrop of Remembrance Day commemorations in the UK and continuing instability in Iraq, the speech was fashioned to deliver a comprehensive depiction of Australia's international military history and Mr Howard's view of its continuing international responsibilities.

"Australians are not by nature a warlike people," Mr Howard said. "There is no tradition of conquest or imperial ambition. We've had no history of bloody civil war, or winning our independence through armed insurrection or fortifying our borders against some constant military threat."

The country shared its social values with the United Kingdom and would also continue to share a common cause in defending them.

"While acutely sensitive to our own neighbourhood, we have never taken an insular or exclusively regional view of our alliances and responses but a perspective that is both global and values-based," he said.

Mr Howard acknowledged that adhering to that principle had exacted a heavy price.

Although only then a country of 4.5 million people, Australia sent 416,000 men to the Great War. About 60,000 were killed and 152,000 wounded - a casualty rate of 65 per cent.

It was the equivalent, for the country's present population, of 300,000 Australian men dying and another 750,000 being injured.

Mr Howard said this "staggering" toll was "difficult for modern minds to comprehend from the relative safety of life in this new century".

However, the concept of that safety was being challenged daily by the continuing threat of terrorism and attacks on US-led occupation forces in Iraq, he said. About 800 Australian servicemen and women remain in Iraq and Mr Howard has indicated on this trip that he has no plans to withdraw them in the short term.

The continuation of the Iraq commitment is beginning to bring into question the Prime Minister's affirmation that Australia would not make any "significant peacekeeping role in the country", one he has delivered several times since US President George Bush declared an end to hostilities in May.

Australia stands alone among its Coalition partners in Iraq in not having suffered any deaths.

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Although only then a country of 4.5 million people, Australia sent 416,000 men to the Great War. About 60,000 were killed and 152,000 wounded - a casualty rate of 65 per cent.

It was the equivalent, for the country's present population, of 300,000 Australian men dying and another 750,000 being injured.

Amazing numbers.

[Hillary's Folly]

I like this guy. Any idea when he is do for re-election?

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I think he's up for his fourth term in 2005, but I'm not positive. Some Australian freeper would know.

There has been talk that he may retire before then. I hope not.

[ken5050]

The kinship and affection for Americans that many Aussies feel is more dur to WW II...people don't realize that Australia was stripped of its military when the bulk of its forces were sent to fight in North Africa...after the Japs attacked PH..there was literally nothing left between Tokyo and Sidney...That was the prime reason the US invaded Guadacanal..

[Dundee]

The next election has to be held between now and Oct 2004 (Australia has 3 year terms and elections can be called at any time.)

[dead]

Thanks for clarifying that. I figured I was probably wrong.

Does it look like he's going to run again? Another article in today's SMH implied that he might be considering retirement.

[dead]

I think that appreciation is beginning to fade. Not enough Australians remember those days, and their media beats the anti-American drumbeat as insistently as the US media does.

[Old Professer]

This headline reeks of oxymoroniacal balderdash!