The Gulf collective defence exercise: a war no one admits to fighting

About this episode

The episode discusses the complexities of the Gulf War and Australia's ambiguous role in it amidst political challenges.

Marcus calls into the Grumpy Strategists' Brindabella bunker with unwelcome news on more diesel supplies. After this disappointment, the Grumpies ponder the mystery of the Gulf War - a war without belligerents. Everyone is telling their populations that they are not at war, just engaged in military operations or acts of 'collective self defence'. Here in Canberra, PM Albanese has to remember which side of his mouth he's speaking out of - the quietly supportive "I sent a Wedgetail and I know the US military loves it" side for Washington, or the "Australia has no part in this unpopular war we're just helping our good friend the UAE" side when talking to the Australian people. Then they discuss the paralysis in Australian force structure planning and the contribution that "bipartisanship" on defence policy is causing, right when both major parties are increasingly on the nose.

People in this episode

Guest: Marcus

Topics covered

• Gulf War
• collective defence
• Australian politics
• military operations
• defence policy
• bipartisanship

Keywords

• Gulf War
• collective defence
• Australia
• PM Albanese
• military operations
• defence policy
• bipartisanship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: US military, UAE

Places: Canberra, Gulf

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