{"id":4782,"date":"2013-03-25T05:25:33","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T19:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=4782"},"modified":"2013-03-26T08:19:11","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T22:19:11","slug":"what-vietnam-and-iraq-should-teach-canberra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-vietnam-and-iraq-should-teach-canberra\/","title":{"rendered":"What Vietnam and Iraq should teach Canberra"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robert<\/a><\/p>\n

If we learn more from losses than wins, then the Canberra system has much to gain from examining its lousy performance in the processes that took Australia to war in Vietnam and Iraq. For Australia, both wars were all about the alliance with the United States. Both were wars of choice, although the regional implications Canberra read into Vietnam meant it was closer to a war of necessity than Iraq.<\/p>\n

Both wars exemplify the Prime Minister\u2019s most profound prerogative<\/a> and Parliament\u2019s lack of power.\u00a0The entry to both showed the Canberra system performing below its best, revealing again the truth that artifice and farce often attend the most serious of moments of government.<\/p>\n

In announcing the deployment to Vietnam, the farce was the last minute rush to extract a formal request from the government of South Vietnam, to veil the patent reality that this was a response to US needs. In the case of Iraq, the artifice was the Howard Government\u2019s claim through 2002 and early 2003 that it was still to make up its mind about whether or not to go to war\u2014a thin veil over the patent reality that this was all about the alliance and that Australia was deeply committed to US invasion plans.<\/p>\n

A quickly mocked-up invitation to Vietnam and a false will-we-won\u2019t-we facade on the approach to Iraq\u2026 Q: Why are voters so cynical and dismissive about the noble and historic efforts of their leaders to shape and direct history? A: History.<\/p>\n

To examine the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, turn to Garry Woodard\u2014a former Australian ambassador in Asia and long-time deep thinker about Oz diplomacy\u2014who has mused several times on the subject<\/a>, most notably in his book \u2018Asian Alternatives: Australia\u2019s Vietnam Decision and Lessons on Going to War<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

The focus of the book is Vietnam. Woodard was an Australian diplomat during the Vietnam War and he writes: \u2018Former participants to whatever degree in any aspect of the Vietnam War are <\/em>different. They write about it with a heavy heart and feelings of inadequacy.\u2019 Iraq participants know the emotions. He concludes his book by listing 50 points of similarity between Australia\u2019s march to both Vietnam and Iraq, headed by a quote from Proust: \u2018The past not merely is not fugitive, it remains present’.<\/p>\n

Woodard summarises his Iraq\u2013Vietnam parallels as including, \u2018the dominance of the Prime Minister, decisions made in secret by a small group of ministers obedient to him, minds closed against area expertise, preference for party political advantage over bipartisanship, and willing subservience to and some credulity about an ally, the United States.\u2019 Some of Woodward’s examples of history repeating are:<\/p>\n