By Niamh Harris – The People’s Voice
Australia has to seriously consider reintroducing conscription to increase its troop numbers in the face of a looming “all-out war” with Russia, according to defence analyst Dr Alexey Muraviev.
His comments comes days after similar comments were made by European leaders, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In his Daily Mail column on Saturday Bojo pledged to fight in the British army if war broke out with Russia. “Would I sign up to fight for King and country?…. Of course I jolly well would,” Johnson wrote. (Yeah right)
He was responding to comments last week by General Patrick Sanders, the UK’s highest ranking army officer General Patrick Sander, who warned that British citizens should be prepared to fight in a potential land war.
News.com.au reports: Rapidly rising global tensions in eastern Europe and the Middle East threaten to “drag Australia into an orbit of an open confrontation”, Dr Alexey Muraviev, Associate Professor of National Security and Strategic Studies at Curtin University, said.
He added it may be “time for Australia to consider another uncomfortable subject — the return of national service”.
“Back in 1972, Labor under Gough Whitlam abolished the national service in peacetime, even though it could still be reactivated in times of war,” Dr Muraviev wrote in an op-ed for Sky News Australia on Sunday.
“Fifty-two years later, we should be asking ourselves and Labor under Anthony Albanese if we should consider reintroducing a form of national service to increase a pool of trained reserves while we still have time. Or should we wait to be dragged into a major conflict, and deal with the consequences?”
Successive Australian governments have recognised the inadequate size of the Australian Defence Force, with former Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledging a 30 per cent increase to a target of 80,000 personnel by 2040 — a policy supported by Labor.