I went to the Boyer Lecture today.
This year’s lecture was given by Peter Cosgrove, former head of the defence forces.
In today’s lecture he reflected on how many times Australia has gone to war without facing any direct threat, but for reasons of “national interest”.
In the case of the First World war, he argued, it was about sureing up our position with the UK.
In the Vietnam War, it was about sureing up our position with the US.
In between, he noted, we did actually face a threat from Japan, but ended up fighting for more important reasons against Nazism.
He also reflected on the many reasons why a country goes to war, and the many issues that need to be considered, including the cost and the possibility of success. In doing so, he reflected on some comments he made a few years ago about how he felt Vietnam was a mistake.
It was an interesting speech, and a nice way to spend a bit of Sunday afternoon.
Aside from that, I haven’t done much else today.