Letters | Amid tensions, let’s not drift towards sending our young to war
- Readers discuss a need in the region to stop a dangerous drift towards war, and how China inspires other nations
All the more so, given the strong recruitment drive in Australia to encourage young Australians to sign up for service in our national defence industry and the Australian Defence Force. It’s a recruitment campaign which brings to mind Lord Kitchener’s invocation to Britain’s young men to enlist for war with Germany.
Coming as it does amid increasing international tensions in our region – particularly between China and the West – this recruitment drive carries a strong echo of our past in what is, alarmingly, starting to look like a build-up to war.
Given that, we owe it to young Australians today not to lose perspective on current international relations and to avoid mistakes made in the past.
We can now look back and see World War I as the nasty, brutal, wasteful imperialist exercise it was – one that ruined the lives of young and old on all sides.
We in Australia must now serve the interests of our young people today – indeed, our national and global interest – by ensuring that a genuine need for preparedness to defend ourselves against external attack does not morph into a mindless, manipulative, jingoistic drift towards an extensive war that is in no one’s interest.