Latest Articles
The lust for power can be as great or greater driver of human effort as the good and humane
Sep 16 2024
11 mins
The promise a Covid royal commission has been renounced even as a sweeping inquiry is needed more than ever
Sep 16 2024
6 mins
The media's talking heads credit Kamala Harris with winning her debate with Trump. Well, yes, they would say that
Sep 15 2024
8 mins
Winning in Afghanistan
Brigadier Justin Kelly:
Until there is security [in Afghanistan] there can be no real progress and, as a result, we should be doing more fighting and fewer good deeds.
The media, the public and politicians find it easier to argue for the benefits of reconstruction, education, political reform – hearts and minds – than they do for the remorseless hunting down and destruction of insurgents.
The problem with a hearts-and-minds approach, apart from not working, is that even if it did work it would take a long time,and this time works in favour of the insurgent’s attempts to exhaust us.
Read Justin Kelly on “How to Win in Afghanistan” here
Richard Fernandez, Belmont Club at Pajamas Media: “I can’t recommend this talk by retired Brigadier Justin Kelly of the Australian Army, which I had the opportunity to listen to in person, highly enough.”
On March 25, 2009, Justin Kelly spoke at a Quadrant Dinner:
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
