The alliance echoes and portents of Australia's longest war

Abstract

Afghanistan was Australia's longest war, yet the consensus between Australia's major political parties on the commitment never wavered over 12 years. The bipartisan unity held even as the nature of the war changed and evolved, Australian casualties rose and popular support fell away. The enduring centrality of the US alliance explains much—probably almost all you need to know—about the unbroken consensus of the Australian polity. Afghanistan was an example of the Australian alliance addiction, similar to Vietnam. As with Vietnam, the Australian military left Afghanistan believing it won its bit of the war, even if the Afghanistan war is judged a disaster. As Australia heads home it finds the USA pivoting in its direction; with all the similarities that can be drawn between Vietnam and Afghanistan, this post-war alliance effect is a huge difference between the two conflicts.

Keywords:

• Afghanistan
• alliance
• army
• Australia
• pivot
• USA
• Vietnam

Notes

1. See the Lowy Institute's 2013 opinion survey, which found a majority of Australians (61 percent) considered that the Afghanistan war was ‘not worth fighting’ (Oliver 2013). Only 35 percent said that, considering the costs versus the benefits to Australia, the war was worth fighting. http://lowyinstitute.org/publications/lowy-institute-poll-2013