David Elliot: The military mistakes we should never repeat

As the world edged closer to the brink of war at a level not seen since 9/11, this week it’s time for us to critically evaluate past military decisions in the hope that we will learn from our mistakes and not repeat them, writes David Elliott.

Australian Defence Force personnel from FSU-8 line up for a farewell parade at RAAF Base Amberley before leaving for Afghanistan. Photo: David Nielsen / The Queensland Times

As the world edged closer to the brink of war at a level not seen since 9/11, this week it’s time for us to critically evaluate past military decisions in the hope that we will learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. Australians have always punched above their weight when it comes to military action. Sometimes actions have proven to be unnecessary, sometimes futile but always, in my opinion, in good faith.

Somberly, when they built Parliament House in Canberra it was deliberately designed so that the Cabinet Room looked straight down Anzac Parade to the Australian War Memorial ensuring politicians charged with deploying our sons and daughters are reminded of the sacrifice that comes with war.

The ACT Branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia Veterans' and families march at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Armed with hindsight, here is a list of flawed Australian military decisions worth learning from:

Sudan War

Seemed like a good idea at the time. In 1885, fifteen years before federation, the Colony of NSW was keen to be seen up to the task of empire-building when the British Government found itself in a skirmish with Sudanese nationalists who threatened, amongst other things, the trade route between Europe and Asia by interrupting shipping through the newly completed Suez Canal. To make matters worse the belligerents had the nerve to kill a celebrated British General named Gordon. Nearly 750 troops were deployed at great cost to the citizenry only to arrive after the fighting had finished thereby leaving our troops to act as little more than a holding force. No battle casualties resulted but I’m sure the families of those soldiers who died of disease were left asking “why”?

Boxer Rebellion

Named for the fighting reputation of the Chinese rebels who had begun pushing back the unwanted attention European powers were giving the Qing Dynasty. With most of our soldiers in South Africa fighting the Boers in 1900 it fell upon the colonial navy to send support to the western efforts which were primarily there to force the indigenous population into buying opium from them. Again, we were too late for the fighting and again we lost sailors to disease but when the contingent returned in March 1901 they were now citizens of a federated nation.

Gallipoli Landing

We are a strange mob when you consider that our worst military defeat is commemorated as our most sacred secular day. Everything that could go wrong, did. Soldiers who signed up to defend the Motherland found themselves instead invading a country they’d barely even heard of via beaches that were impossible to traverse. To make matters worse the brains trust back in London had not been discreet in talking up the planned invasion in the public domain meaning that any element of surprise was negated. Dumb.

The landing in Gallipoli. Picture: Australian War Memorial.

Anzac Cove in Gallipoli in Turkey. Landing site of the Australian and New Zealand troops in 1915. Photo: iStock

Not promoting John Monash

Not so much an operational failing as it was a matter of morale and natural justice. General Sir John Monash is arguably the greatest Australian to ever live. His military genius, genuine empathy and love of country was so well recognized that more than a quarter of a million Victorians lined the streets of Melbourne to farewell him when he died in 1931. Denying him the rank of Field Marshall is a sensitive issue amongst the defence family even to this day.

Sir John Monash arrives in Sydney 21 February 1929. Picture: National Library of Australia

Failing Darwin

Our Pearl Harbour. How did the then Commonwealth Government not look on a map and ask themselves the most likely place for a Japanese attack? Leaving our northernmost city so unguarded whilst watching a totalitarian regime build up arms in Tokyo, and even using them in China during the preceding years, should have been a “Warning Order” for the ages and one that the current Parliament should keep front of mind.

Black smoke covers the Darwin skyline after the Japanese launched 188 fighter planes against Darwin on February, 19, 1942.

Sending conscripts to Vietnam

Still a very raw subject amongst veterans and their families and I’m pretty sure that at the time I would have been in favour of the deployment but to send young men, teenagers no less, unwillingly into a foreign war which we now know did not threaten Australian sovereignty was wicked. Indeed, if we ever needed a referendum it’s one that would amend the constitution to deny future Governments access to this practice.

Australian soldiers instruct South Vietnamese troops in the use of automatic rifles in 1970, during the Vietnam War. Picture: Army Public Relations. Australian Armed Forces / Soldier Australia's First Century Historical

Retreating from Afghanistan

How ironic that both our first and last military deployments were to suppress religious extremists. Our longest war is littered with examples of heroism, controversy and tenacity all motivated by a desire to rid the world of a suppressive doctrine that actually denies its own citizens an education based on gender and practices state sanctioned murder based on sexual preferences. And now they are back in control.

With nearly 90,000 Australians currently serving in both the permanent and reserve defence forces, I’m one of the 180,000 parents hoping that Albo spends plenty of time looking out of the Cabinet Room window whilst he’s Prime Minister.