Opinion

Will we fight to save Taiwan like the Anzacs saved France?

Australia’s former Chief of the Army says we must avoid a future situation where a PM might say the US is at war and as a result, Australia is also at war.

Peter LeahyFormer Chief of Army

Mar 10, 2021 – 11.46am

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One of my proudest moments in the uniform of the Australian Army was during a ceremony around ANZAC Day where I stood in the courtyard of the school at Villers Bretonneux with the mayor of that small village in France. During the ceremony he turned to me and said, ’We Frenchmen do not understand why you Australians came here in 1915, but you helped save our democracy.

I wonder if at some time in the future, a mayor of a small village in Taiwan might say the same thing to a future chief of the Australian Army.

Peter Leahy is a retired Chief of Army, and Professor and foundation Director of the National Security Institute at the University of Canberra