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.