What kind of country bets everything on hope, when being wrong could kill its freedom?

Australia is dozing, despite China’s repeated warnings it could invade Taiwan. We need weapons and powerful friends motivated to defend us and deter China.

The Albanese government is foolishly betting our freedom that war will not come.

Not to us.

But wars often come when the victims are like us, in denial.

Ukraine’s president said a Russian invasion “will not happen” two days before it did.

Israel’s prime minister didn’t think a Hamas invasion was possible until the day it did, on October 7.

The Albanese government is foolishly betting our freedom that war will not come. Picture: AFP

A year before World War II, Britain’s prime minister declared “peace for our time” after meeting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

America’s CIA dismissed a North Korean invasion of South Korea as “unlikely” just five months before the Korean War. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was a total surprise.

And now Australia is dozing, despite China’s repeated warnings it could invade Taiwan.

Of course, you’re right. Odds are it won’t happen. Probably.

But what kind of country bets everything on hope, when being wrong could kill its freedom?

Consider this.

China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, publicly ordered his generals last year to “dare to fight” and his army to “train for war”, while sending jets and naval ships to threaten Taiwan.

Xi Jinping publicly ordered his generals last year to ‘dare to fight’. Picture: AFP

China has now seen the US and Europe already struggle to arm – or even support – Ukraine and Israel in wars launched by Russia, a Chinese ally, and Hamas, a terrorist group backed by Iran, China’s other big ally.

The West is running low on ammunition.

We’re in peak danger. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan, if successful, would smash US influence in our part of the world, sever our sea lanes and leave us without a Big Daddy to protect us from Chinese bullying.

So we need weapons and powerful friends motivated to defend us and deter China.

Instead, the Albanese government spends just 2 per cent of its budget on defence, and doesn’t have even a single drone, the new weapon of the asymmetric battlefield.

The Albanese government spends just 2 per cent of its budget on defence. Picture: AAP

What’s more, we’re so weak and unreliable as an ally that this government didn’t send even one ship when the US asked for help to keep the Red Sea shipping lane safe from drone attacks by another Iranian-backed group.

It’s even burying our 45 Taipan helicopters in the dirt rather than let Ukraine have them, and is reportedly doing a go-slow on Israeli requests for exports of dual-use technology for its military.

Yes, war may never happen. But if it does, we can’t save ourselves and are running out of friends with the weapons and IOUs to help.

What a horrendous gamble.

Originally published as What kind of country bets everything on hope, when being wrong could kill its freedom?