Are today's Australians ready to defend our country? | Wheeler's Wisdom

Are Australians ready if our national borders are threatened?

The total lack of northern defences when WWII broke out is matched only by our lack of preparedness today in the face of Russian aggression and territorial adventures by China.

Would Australians volunteer to fight today? The results of a survey by the Institute of Public Affairs are not very reassuring.

"When asked if you were in the same position as Ukrainians are now, would you stay and fight or leave the country, 54 per cent of Australians said they would either leave the country or were unsure. Only 46 per cent confirmed that they would stay and fight."

Would we see young men crowding into Wagga to enlist, as happened in 1939?

The IPA survey showed, "... among the 18-24-year-olds ... Only 32 per cent of them said they would stay and fight, while 40 per cent said they would leave the country and 28 per cent were unsure."

Ukrainian women and children fled to neighbouring Poland.

I would want my young grandchildren, with their mothers and grandmothers, to be as far out of harm's way as possible.

Would those who remain in Australia have the skills or the arms to fight an invasion?

Bob Katter commented, "Nearly every boy in Australia had a rifle when I was growing up. Maybe that's because in World War II Australia was two weeks away from invasion and the federal government was going to give Australia away except for Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne."

His solution?

All high school students should be given rifles and training at armouries!

Katter's idea will be ignored because his sponsorship by the gun lobby is well known.

However, we have to admit that we have no defensive weapons in the hands of ordinary people, and we have a generation that does not know how to handle firearms.

Australia's life-saving gun control regulations are not negotiable. Not a week goes by without a report from America about a gun atrocity.

There must be a middle way. Universal National Service for three months was abandoned in about 1961. Until then, all young men were required to learn basic defence skills.

National Service had an interesting side-effect. For many young men, it was the first time away from home. I knew young blokes just a year or two older than me who credited National Service for opening their eyes to life outside their home community.

Being in the Army Cadets was popular when I was at high school. I wasn't in the Cadets, but many of my friends were. I was somewhat envious when they told tales of their adventures at Cadet camps.

Could Cadet programs be revitalised? As a DA photographer, I was sent to Forest Hill RAAF Base to take pictures of young female cadets. Talking with them, they loved the experience. Why did high school Cadets fall out of favour?

Read the very dangerous defence policies from the Greens - slashing Defence spending by $191.7 billion to 2032 and creating a "Global Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution".

Can we really imagine those nice dictators from Russia and China sitting down to talk about urgent decarbonisation of defence capabilities to help mitigate Climate Change?

Do the Greens understand Putin's takeover of Ukraine, where the Ukrainian people are fighting hard to retain their country and their freedom? Do they approve of China's new bases in the South China Sea that are already being used to intimidate fishing fleets from smaller nations?

The Greens would axe the US Alliance.

Last week the Solomon Islands signed a "security agreement" with China. A Chinese base?

Who remembers Quadalcanal, 7100 Americans and Australians dead, 7789 wounded in 1942-3 getting the Japanese out of the Solomons? History repeating.

If Labor limps home at this election with Greens' support, Albanese will be under intense pressure to nobble our ability to defend ourselves.

The RSL reminds us that, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance".

Many Australians fought and died to guarantee the freedom we enjoy.

Today, ANZAC Day, "We will remember them."