Sky News host Peta Credlin says more “severe tests” than the coronavirus pandemic could be coming our way, and you’ve got to wonder how we can defend our country if we “can’t even defend Australia’s values”.
“Yesterday’s announcement that Australia’s longest war is finally over – with the last troops home from Afghanistan by mid-year – is naturally welcome,” Ms Credlin said.
“The desire of two presidents, Donald Trump and now Joe Biden, to end the ‘forever wars’, reflects our reluctance to put our sons and daughters at risk, and our absolute right yearning to spare anyone the horrors of war, and premature death.
“But will we always be free of the dreadful challenges that our grandparents and great grandparents, routinely, had to face? Much as we’d wish it otherwise, I’m not sure that’s something we can count on. If you are a student of history, you will know that the odds are against that sort of optimism.”
Ms Credlin said she is unsure how Australia would “cope as a nation with the need for military sacrifice on a large scale” given our “safety first mindset” lately displayed and reinforced by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s worth remembering, that from a population of just over five million, Australia lost 60,000 in the Great War,” she said.
“From a population of just over seven million, Australia lost 40,000 in World War Two. My grandpa here, wounded in New Guinea. As a nation, we lost nearly 400 in Korea and nearly 600 in Vietnam.
“Not dead of natural causes – but killed, killed in combat. We can’t assume that a great power conflict is a thing of the past.”
Given our “modern nervousness about free speech – lest it offend anyone”, and our “readiness to throw people to the wolves – reputationally at least”, you’ve got to wonder “just how strong do you think our national character is these days,” says Ms Credlin.
“Most of us want to think the pandemic has tested us, and in part it has, but compared to what those who came before us have faced, this pandemic wasn’t that much,” she said.
“What keeps me awake at night, is the prospect that more severe tests are coming our way; and my worry: we’re just not the sort of people we once were.”
