Arm every Aussie: A US Marine’s survival strategy to stop China

For the past 25 years, it has been my distinct pleasure to live in Australia since retiring from the United States Marine Corps. It requires only a modicum of historical knowledge to understand that Australia’s clearly strategic location in the South Pacific poses an existential threat to the Chinese Communist Party.This location, as it did during World War II, offers an excellent intermediate staging base for mounting a coordinated defense or counterattack against any Chinese aggression. However, as a military professional, I see a failure of the Australian government, a generally complacent Australian population, and an ill-prepared Australian Defense Force capable of confronting this looming threat. It doesn’t require a military genius to recognize that the best defense against a threat is readiness to adequately defend or offensively confront that threat. While it is not prudent to be openly hostile toward the Chinese, it is wise to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. China is not likely to allow a replay of the successful WWII island-hopping Pacific campaign against the Japanese; therefore, Australia must demonstrate preparedness and a willingness to confront that threat. FROM ‘KILL HER’ CHANTS TO BROKEN RIBS: AUSTRALIA’S TRUMP MOMENT IS HEREStrength and readiness are always deterrents against aggression.In the past, the Western world has been able to buy the battlefield in terms of time, distance, and money. However, in view of new and emerging technologies, we neither have the time, distance, nor money to adequately defend ourselves properly, unless we are proactive in appropriately preparing for the threat. There are three issues that the Australians should actively confront nationally to improve their preparedness for the worst-case scenario. First, the Australian government needs to:1. Immediately establish an increased ADF funding stream that enables the rapid expansion of the force before the nation is confronted with a war with China.2. Cancel any existing agreements with China that allow them control of Australian ports and/or facilities. Inviting the fox into the hen house is never a smart thing to do.3. Seek a broad international agreement to establish and expand military training opportunities on Australian soil with external and regional allies. Second, the Australian people should be organized into a civil-military organization — a home guard, if you will — that would complement and/or reinforce the active-duty ADF military establishment in time of war.This can be done on a state and regional basis by developing a table of organization and equipment, as well as nationwide training facilities, to support the CMO. The entire Australian civilian population should be armed and organized accordingly.Third, and more importantly, the ADF needs to be reorganized and equipped according to the way it will fight. For starters, the Australian separate services, army, air force, and navy are too small to be employed separately. Therefore, I recommend these capabilities be permanently merged into a single service like the U.S. Marine Corps’ Air-Ground Task Force concept: “one call, gets it all,” air, ground, and sea.Reorganization and consolidated corps concept This brings me to the Australian navy, which is inadequate to serve the needs of the nation in wartime. As it exists today, it requires a major ship-building program to provide both naval gunfire support ships and amphibious warfare ships to transport soldiers to where they will fight. Additionally, this naval expansion program should also include the adoption of the British concept “ships taken up from trade,” or STUFT, to augment the Australian navy’s shortfalls.And finally, Australia and New Zealand have a marvelous tradition, as exemplified by the WWI ANZAC concept; therefore, every effort should be made to capitalize on that success in every way possible, especially by incorporating New Zealand’s military assets into the reorganization and consolidated corps concept, as described above. You may ask: Why am I, a retired U.S. Marine, so concerned about this? Well, the short answer is that since I live in Australia, I have a dog in this fight too! I have seen and participated in my share of war, as a witness to the 1950s Arab revolt in Morocco, two tours in Vietnam (1969-70 and ’72), the 1976 evacuation of Beirut, the 1990 Gulf War, and five years as a Defense Department contract trainer during the occupation of Afghanistan, 2006-12. But, more importantly, the sure way to a disastrous defeat is to be unprepared when the balloon goes up.Australians cannot afford to keep their head in the sand, hoping that war will not come. They must be prepared, and they must demonstrate their resolve. As a matter of fact, going forward, it should be made a national policy for all who live here to be part of the plan to defend this island nation and, furthermore, to be prepared for deployment to war, if and when it becomes necessary. Continued complacency is a sure formula for defeat.Sustainability As important, and possibly more important, is Australia’s lack of readiness when it comes to logistics, transport, and a manufacturing base to sustain a real fight. From my warfighting experience, war is as much an exercise in sustainability as it is the capacity to close with and kill or capture your adversary. The current fuel crisis is yet another example of how ill-prepared Australia is. Exacerbating all the points I have highlighted above is the Australian reliance on the procurement of weapons, ammunition, and other warfighting material from external sources. In conclusion: Perhaps what I am endeavoring to say is best described by a quote from the first president of the United States, George Washington, “If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace… it must be known, that we are at all times ready for war.” Here is some additional food for thought. My father, who was a Chinese linguist, who fought alongside Chinese guerrillas against the Japanese during WWII in China, Burma, and India (CBI Theater of operations) taught me this from his wartime association with the Chinese. He determined that the Chinese people have historically been businessmen and merchants; therefore, it was his lifelong opinion, which I share, that the Chinese people don’t want to go to war, especially when over 7 million died during the 1947 Chinese civil war. Additionally, economically, China has done well since Richard Nixon opened it to the world of global trade and commerce. I see China in exactly the same circumstances as Russia was before the wall came down. Gorbachev was clear about that. The wall had to come down because the Russian people were about to revolt. The Russian people intuitively knew what was on the other side of that wall, and they wanted the same for themselves. China is no different. The Chinese people don’t want to destroy the world economy and global trade by invading Taiwan.Nevertheless, Australia needs to demonstrate the strength and willingness to fight to avoid war. I USED TO THINK AMERICANS WERE PARANOID ABOUT FREEDOM. AUSTRALIA PROVED ME WRONGIn closing, I also want to emphasize that our reliance on technology, i.e., mobile phones, GPS, and electric vehicles, can and will be an Achilles heel in times of war. Therefore, it is vitally important that we plan for the loss of satellites and that the enemy will use electromagnetic pulse weapons at the onset of any hostilities. What is the backup plan for the worst-case scenario?Tom Williams is a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel with 28 years of active-duty service, followed by 11 years of extensive defense training, mentoring, security, and management experience in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.