NEW WARS

Spock wouldn't have been confused. The Spaceship Enterprise would have heard his words ring through the control room.

"It's war Jim, but not as we know it", Spock would have said.

Hence the following meditation in the Canberra Times . . .

SERVICE RIVALRY

Each Service genuinely believes its method of fighting war and resolving conflict is the best. That's why we have inter-service rivalry. Of course each general/admiral/air marshal wants promotion . . . but they're also convinced they've got the answer.

I reckon a recent speech showed this rivalry is back - in a big way - in Australia.

OLD THINKING IS NOT ENOUGH

In decades to come we'll look back on the predictable causes of the current economic turmoil and be able to say precisely how institutions should have reacted. 

But the real problems are embedded in the economic system. This story simply considers the dysfunction of a central bank which considers fighting inflation one of its primary tasks . . . 

AN ONION SKIN

Australia announced this week it will take over the lead role in Oruzgan.

There is a story behind this, but I don't know or understand what it means yet. What I've done here is simply attempt to revisit some of the complexity involved.

Of course, even this sketch is far too simplistic . . .

WHAT NATIONHOOD SHOULD BE ABOUT

This column is, again, critical of Julia Gillard. I've attempted to use rhetorical devices to make it interesting to readers. But the key point is located three-quarters of the way down.

A nation state needs to look after its workers. I don't believe the move to get foreign workers to mining projects is in this country's best interests. As a result I'm critical of any PM who allows this to happen . . . 

THOMSON FEVER

It's impossible to ignore the Thomson affair any longer.

Naturally I have no knowledge about the alleged illegalities themselves. This column refers merely to the fact that the government - and Julia Gillard - has already been 'convicted' by most Australians.

It needed have been this way . . .

MATCHING DEFENCE POLICY TO SPENDING

There's been a sudden, dramatic change to Australia's defence policy. 

In the past we've focussed on objectives first, and then insisted we'll find the money to fund these. Next years Defence White Paper will make it clear that that formulation has changed.

The number one priority is to keep defence spending constrained to less than two percent of GDP. This means abandoning the objective of acting as an "independent middle-power", as this column seeks to explain . . .