The veterans of the 1940s would be only too familiar with the battles in Ukraine and the tensions in the South Pacific. But what should we do now?
Australia commemorates Anzac Day in 2022 amid unusually powerful echoes of the 20th century world wars that produced so many of the nation’s legends.
Closer to home, Australians and Americans fought ferociously for four years to push imperial Japan out of the Solomon Islands. After the Japanese failed on the Kokoda Track to take Port Moresby, the struggle shifted to Guadalcanal in the Solomons with the same Japanese aim of severing communications between the US and Australia.
The history explains the deep unease in Australia this week as China pulls off a new security deal with the Solomon Islands, reaching into the South Pacific neighbourhood. It gives China a foothold and listening post overlooking the Coral and Tasman seas, and the bases and transit lanes of Australia’s new nuclear submarine fleet. Pacific diplomacy is hard, and that problem goes far beyond the politicking of an election campaign.
The West may have to face him down – rather than letting the psychopath set the terms. He may settle for the Donbas region as “victory”. But he cannot be allowed to cut Ukraine off from the sea, impeding economic recovery and leaving the country to an unviable stagnation that Putin would count as a win.But even a decent outcome will not have spared Ukraine relearning the horrors of near-total war in Europe.
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