“… Donald Trump has again accused Australia of refusing to help the US in the Strait of Hormuz, but the Australian government maintains there has been no formal request for help from the US…. “I’m not happy with Australia because they were not there when we asked them to be there,” Mr Trump said. … Mr Trump said “Australia was not great” and he “was a little surprised by Australia” – from an article by Brad Ryan for Australian ABC. Donald Trump repeats he is ‘not happy with Australia’ as Strait of Hormuz crisis continues – ABC News
And below is a quote directly from the pages of “Queen’s Pawn to D4” by Rod Johnston, published in late 2025 (before the current Iran war).
“Previous generations of Australians dutifully followed Britain into a series of remote conflicts, such as China’s Boxer Uprising, the South African Boer War, the disastrous European World War 1 and the European theatre of World War 2. Australia’s lack of preparedness for a Pacific conflict with Japan, in 1941, is largely attributable to the fact that most of Australia’s regular armed forces were engaged in a war in support of British masters on the other side of the world. Our ‘rescue’ from Japanese invasion by the United States and the post-war decline of Britain heralded an altogether unhealthy reliance on US ‘protection’. This reliance was consummated through the ANZUS Treaty of 1951, which has led directly to Australia’s involvement in the Korean War, the Viet Nam War, two Iraq Wars, the Afghanistan War and several other lesser conflicts … ‘Is Australia really addicted to war?’ Perhaps the Australian wars of a century-and-a-half should be more wisely remembered as tragedies, when an immature country sacrificed its impetuous youth for the benefit of nobody except its avaricious overlords … It is time for Australia to renounce state-promoted violence and to promote respect, cooperation and assistance throughout the region and the wider world. Australia must step up, not as a belligerent protagonist, but as a peacemaker.”
At last Australia is learning to say “No” … sort of.
Read “Queen’s Pawn to D4” by Rod Johnston
