- This new book by Australian historian Emma Shortis is just so good I literally squealed with delight at virtually every para. Try this:
The relationship remains based on those shared assumptions about the world - that it is full of threats to be countered, that those threats can only be mitigated by shows of strength, that American power is infinitely preferable to any other kind, that the violence that comes with it is inevitable, that Australia is just a bit player in the global scheme of things and can only carry on as it has.
This is bullshit.
- Shortis critiques our relationship with the US on every level. Her chapters list them all - shared values, shared enemies, shared wars, shared bombs, shared money, shared climate, shared fears, shared supremacy, and shared cosmos (space exploration). Her conclusion asks us to radically reassess a possible shared future.
- Her particular focus is the ANZUS Treaty, its origins and dismal legacy. The chapter on shared wars is powerful. Korea, Vietnam, Afganistan, Iraq - Shortis condemns the racism ('yellow peril') and total lack of morality. Australia's constant genuflecting to American dominance has always shown our embarrassing feebleness and lack of character.
The degree to which the American military industrial complex has captured Australia is almost unparalleled elsewhere in the world. Since the Korean War in the 1950s, Australia has been one of the few countries to blindly trail America into each conflict. Our government's collective refusal to reckon with this legacy - to really confront the morality of American wars and our enthusiastic participation in them - has helped perpetuate American imperialism and led to the unnecessary, violent deaths of millions of people.
- What frightens me, and unfortunately Shortis doesn't address this specifically, is a possible US-China military confrontation over Taiwan. How will Australia respond? In the usual way?
- This book is a must read.
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