ANZAC Day once was a day to commemorate the sacrifices made by Australian soliders in war – but is it now being hijacked by companies with a profit motive?
Australian War Memorial
Australian brands are increasingly looking to exploit national holidays like ANZAC Day. Given soft retail conditions, such efforts are understandable. But is it welcome?
Sure, there is no law against…
There are reports of up to 200 Australians joining up to fight with Syrian rebel groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, which may pose a threat to security at home.
Jabhat al-Nusra
The Syrian insurgent group Jabhat al-Nusra’s recent pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda, alongside reports of Australians fighting in the insurgency, highlights a security threat to Australia.
According…
Rape as a weapon of war needs to stop – but how can local and international communities help?
EPA/Nicolas Postal
During the chaos of war, rape is used by the powerful as a deliberate strategy to destroy any opposition. The law, seemingly, has little role to play. After all, during conflict the normal rules of law…
No war was photographed like Vietnam and many of these images still speak to us today.
Photographer: Michael Coleridge. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial EKN/67/0130/VN.
An unprecedented level of media coverage made the Vietnam war a watershed moment in the discipline of photography.
The images by official military photographers, photojournalists, and individual soldiers…
We need to learn from lessons of the past when it comes to veterans' mental health.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Physical injury and death in war is expected. But we also now know the stories of large numbers of veterans suffering major psychological trauma.
These involve Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety…
Vietnam-US relations, as represented here by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, have come a long way.
EPA/KHAM/POOL
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Australian forces arriving in Vietnam – the beginning of a war that had a huge impact on social and political life here in Australia and abroad. The Conversation will…
Al-Qaeda deputy Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed by a drone strike last week.
EPA/IntelCentre
With boots on the ground being costly politically, economically and diplomatically, it seems that week after week, drones are the most important front line weapon against Washington’s opponents in the…
How is the war in Afghanistan going? With media this tightly controlled, the picture may never be clear.
Special Operations Command
Barack Obama marked the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death with a surprise visit to Kabul this week. Obama promised to “finish the job” in Afghanistan, but seven were killed in Kabul just hours…
Analysing Anzac speech, slang and reading material gives us a better understanding of their experience.
EPA/Tolga Bozoglu
Many place the Anzac legend at the heart of the Australian national identity. But some have rightly challenged this idea, opening up debate about why the Anzac story is so central to our national mythology…
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said the images are an aberration, but evidence points to the contrary.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
Once again we are confronted with disturbing images coming out of a war zone, this time of American troops posing for trophy shots with the body parts of alleged Afghan suicide bombers, published by the…
Australian troops work with Afghan National Army forces in Uruzgan province in August 2011.
Prime minister Julia Gillard today announced the revised timetable for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan.
Within 12 to 18 months the majority of Australian military forces will leave…
The conflict in Sri Lanka has not captured global attention but remains one of the bloodiest since WWII.
EPA/STR
There is a growing danger that the political leaders responsible for the greatest single atrocity of recent years will suffer no consequences. Journalists, not governments, have taken a lead in raising…
The destruction of headstones from World War II have caused outrage around the world.
EPA/Mohamed Elryani
Around 50 Australians graves from World War II in Libya’s Benghazi Commonwealth war cemetery have been desecrated, apparently by Islamist militia. Footage of this violent destruction has spread around…
Iraqi security forces inspect a taxi in the wake of a deadly attack on the city of Kirkuk last month.
EPA/Khalil Al A Nei
Last week in Baghdad, 17 men were executed.
Nothing special to note here in the conflict ridden, post-US withdrawal landscape of Iraq, except that this time they were executed by an Iraqi court.
This…
Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is part of a renewed push to reclaim the Falkland Islands.
EPA/Leo La Valle
Argentinean wordsmith Jorge Luis Borges could be cryptic. But his powers of perception were always daunting. Borges came up with an excellent description of the 10 week conflict in 1982 that took place…
You don’t need to take Iran’s nuclear facilities out by force. Just pass a virus onto them.
EPA
The latest round of chest beating over Iran developing nuclear weapons has seen renewed speculation over the possibility of military strikes on the Islamic Republic’s enrichment facilities.
Certainly…
The conflict still looms large in Sri Lanka – half a million land mines are still scattered throughout the country, and there’s a huge international effort to clear them.
AFP/Ishara S.Kodikara
CHOGM: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is among the Commonwealth leaders gathering in Perth this week. But his government is accused of committing war crimes against its own people. Ben Saul, Professor…
Women will soon join their male colleagues on the front line in dangerous deployments like Afghanistan.
AAP/Australian Department of Defence
I wish to serve my country and the national interest in the best way possible. Now women are to be allowed to serve on the front line becoming an infantry officer is a real possibility. But there are hurdles…
A Libyan opposition fighter fires from the back of a technical.
AAP
Somewhere in the bowels of Toyota City there must be a cadre of marketing salarymen working out how the corporation can apply for official sponsorship of the Libyan Revolution.
After all, the whole ground…
An Australian soldier in Afghanistan: women will now have the chance to join combat units.
AAP
Defence Minister Stephen Smith has announced the Australian Defence Force will open up full employment opportunities for women.
In a decision made by Cabinet on Monday night, with the full support of…
United Airlines flight 175 is crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Centre on September 11 2001.
AAP
The terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001 catapulted the world into another stage of history: the struggle between communism and capitalism, and references to the “end of history…
The father of Nael Abu Hlayel, who blew himself up in Israel in 2002, holds up pictures of his son.
AAP
Ten years ago, nineteen young Muslims commandeered passenger jets and killed themselves, taking with them 2973 people to the inferno of fire. Since the 9/11 attacks, suicide bombings have become a staple…
The Cronulla riots saw ugly attacks on people of “Middle Eastern appearance”.
AAP
It’s about that moment; if you’re old enough it’s the indelible memory of JFK being shot. As a teenager I was listening to the car radio when I heard.
For Gen X it’s 9/11, the midnight phonecalls, the…
We all think we know what a child soldier looks like, but we’d be wrong.
AFP/Georges Gobet
The commander of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda during the terrible conflict in the early 1990s has put forward legislation in Canada to help former child soldiers seek refuge there.
During…
A rebel fighter mans a makeshift checkpoint in Tripoli.
AAP
Despite confusion in recent hours about exactly who the Libyan rebels have captured, it is clear that the Gaddafi regime has been severely weakened by the weekend advance into central Tripoli.
This advance…
Australian veterans of the Pacific theatre in WWII attend a VJ Day memorial.
AAP
Sometimes an historian will challenge one of the key ideological myths of Australian capitalism.
Henry Reynolds does it in his work on the colonial treatment of Aborigines, a treatment some go so far…
After five months of conflict in Libya, the Gaddafi regime remains in power in Tripoli despite the rebel campaign and NATO airstrikes.
Recent days have seen serious developments in the country. Muammar…
Recent media reports have called into question Australia’s adherence to the Geneva Convention during the early stages of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A key allegation is that Australia set up a system…
