John Peel writes: It must be the Parliament that decides if and when we go to war (“Instead of trashing Simon Crean’s legacy, Labor should fix its war powers mess”). Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s limited wisdom has yet to be fully tested, but just look at some of the buffoons who preceded him as prime minister. All of them, without hesitation, would have grabbed the coat-tails of the United States were there to have been a war over Taiwan, regardless of the lessons we should have learnt after Iraq.
Should that mean consulting Parliament before firing off our most lethal missiles with ranges close to 150 metres, so be it.
Cheryl Marquez writes: I would rather that there not be a Parliament or an individual who commits Australia to war, but if needs be that person or persons need to lead the troops on to the battlefield instead of sending our young men for fodder — invariably to prop up the US economy.
John Eaton writes: It should be the population’s choice to go to war and also whether to massively overspend on wasteful military equipment. Why is Australia spending $360 billion (or possibly much more) on unnecessary submarines? That idiot Scott Morrison has a lot to answer for and should be held to account (morally and legally). Anthony Albanese should have tried to pull out of the bad deal, but I recognise it would have been extremely difficult given Morrison’s self-indulgent pursuit of the same. It’s time for a more rational assessment of these matters.
John McCombe writes: Labor under Simon Crean strongly and correctly opposed the illegal invasion of Iraq — and said it to then-US president George Bush’s face. A damning contrast with the current leadership.
Edward Down writes: The whole idea of democracy is that the people have a choice. When the people don’t have a choice, by definition there is no democracy. And when both major parties have criminally decided that Australia can go to war on the decision of one man or woman, the people of Australia have not been given a choice.
Full credit to the loathsome Americans who have — either overtly or covertly — been able to remove the choice from the hands of the Australian people so that Australia can continue in its ridiculous role as a lapdog for America.
Damien Hurrell writes: What is often missed in discussions of war powers is that Parliament — or at least the House of Representatives — already has the power to review a prime minister’s decisions. A PM who tried to take Australia to war against the wishes of the lower house could be dismissed by a motion of no confidence and a new PM appointed who would observe the house’s wishes.
Parliament always was, and remains, the supreme decision-making body in this nation.
