The political storm fronts that have swept Europe are heading our way. And we have a decision to make.
The political storm fronts that have swept Europe are heading our way. And we have a decision to make.
Opinion
February 24, 2025 — 10.50am
Three years ago, Russian armies crossed Ukraine’s frontiers and Russian missiles streaked towards their targets inside Ukraine. Against the predictions of many who deemed themselves as experts in such affairs, Ukraine has held out longer and killed far more Russians in the process, frustrating Putin and inspiring many in the West.
Unfortunately, for those like the newly installed American president, Ukrainian courage, sacrifice and resilience are not virtues but an annoyance. The American administration, by its words and deeds, clearly see Ukraine’s defence of itself, and of Western values more broadly, as an obstacle to a desired close relationship with a brutal, colonial and genocidal Russia.
In commemorating the third anniversary of Putin’s large-scale invasion, one could propose many relevant lessons. There are lessons about national will, policy and strategy for politicians and military leaders. There are lessons about technology for defence industry and military strategists. There are also lessons about civil defence and national resilience for broader society.
But the most important insight from the past three years is that war, despite all the technology, remains a human affair, and the most important element of the human dimension of war is courage.
Courage was evident in the Battle of Kyiv, and in particular, the Battle of Moshchun where a Ukrainian brigade supported by the inhabitants of the village defeated a Russian force nearly ten times its size. Courage was on full display when the Ukrainian president, instead of evacuating as he was being urged to by timid Western leaders, remained at his post demanding ammunition, not a ride. The uncommon virtue of courage has been a common occurrence by Ukrainian soldiers, emergency service personnel, and citizens on every day of this war.
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But if Ukraine has given us demonstrations of individual and national courage, the past three years have also provided too many examples of where courage was lacking. In Western Europe, many nations were initially hesitant to provide material support to Ukraine. While this has changed, they have developed an escalation terror that has slowed aid. The debates of late 2022 about the escalatory nature of tanks, always a fig leaf for cowardly behaviour by politicians, ensured that a Russian army was allowed to escape Ukrainian offensives and fight another day. At every step politicians have telegraphed their fears to Putin, who has amplified them with bluff or flattery.
There has been a failure of courage in Western political and business leaders to push back on Russian and Chinese misinformation. Social media is awash with the lies of authoritarians. This has ensured western citizens have been poorly informed about the war and seen a few Western leaders parrot Russian messaging. Indeed, Ukraine is now held up as the aggressor in this war by the person formally known as “the leader of the free world”. This is a profound and ongoing failure of moral courage.
But lest we indulge too much in wailing about events from overseas, Australians have much to ponder about the nature of courage in the 21st century.
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The most urgent need is for Australian governments to have the courage to take hard decisions. Government lacked the courage to address the repulsive celebrations by Hamas supporters on the night of October 7, 2023 and is now reaping a whirlwind of antisemitism. The spirit of innovation has disappeared from politics here. This has trickled down into the public service and military institutions, and has resulted in a committee-centric, zero risk culture. Our frontline military units are entangled in a morass of bureaucratic dictates from the largest number of senior public servants and star-ranked military officers in our history. This is resulting in their readiness, lethality and deterrent value declining steadily.
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These are examples of profound failures of moral and intellectual courage by successive governments and Canberra mandarins. For a decade, as the threats posed by China have been increasingly evident, they failed to increase defence spending. Even now, they hunker down in Canberra as Chinese warships sail off our coast, hoping the political storm front that has passed over Europe won’t hit our shores. It will. Canberra is intellectually, morally and politically unprepared.
It could be different. We only need the courage to back ourselves. Our nation has shown the ability to build the world’s 12th largest economy from nothing in just two centuries, protect its democracy where others have not, and maintain a societal cohesion despite the best efforts of inner-city progressives and interest groups to divide us. As Ukraine demonstrates, mid-sized nations can unite and defend themselves. Every citizen has a role to play in the prosperity, cohesion and security of Australia. But to do so, we need the courage to accept that the world has shifted on its axis. We require a new vision for Australia’s place in a world transformed, and a plan for how we will, as a cohesive modern society, achieve that vision.
In a 1954 speech, Winston Churchill described his time as leader of wartime England thus: “it was the nation…that was the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.” In Ukraine, the president, his soldiers and citizens have shown in the past three years what a country with a lion’s heart looks like.
But over the same time, we have seen the rise of politicians, tech and business leaders in the west who embrace an opposite philosophy where moral, intellectual and physical cowardice is embraced as a virtue.
On a day that we commemorate the enormous and continuing sacrifices of Ukraine since February 2022, Australian politicians, government and business leaders, and all citizens, must decide which path we will take in the 21st century.
Mick Ryan is a retired major general who served in the ADF for more than 35 years. He is the Senior Fellow for Military Studies at the Lowy Institute. He is the author of the 2024 book, The War for Ukraine.
Mick Ryan is a retired major general who served in the ADF for more than 35 years. He is the Senior Fellow for Military Studies at the Lowy Institute. He is the author of the 2024 book, The War for Ukraine.
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