Australia in America's Third Iraq War :: JapanFocus
Richard Tanter
Little more than two months after the start of bombing operations,
Australia’s new war in Iraq is following the path of its predecessor, a
path marked by Australian subordination to American interests,
irrelevance to Australian national interests, casual disregard for Iraqi
sovereignty and law, increasingly severe restriction of information
provided to the Australian public, and an inclination to escalation.
Just as it is America’s, this is Australia’s third war with Iraq in
less than 25 years – following on from the Gulf War following the Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait in 1990-1991, and the illegal and destructive
invasion and occupation of Iraq between 2003 and 2008. Australia’s
600-strong deployment to Iraq this time is as large as Canada’s, and is
exceeded only by the deployments by the United States and Britain.
