On Tuesday 10 March 2026, the Australian government agreed to defend UAE against Iranian drone attacks by deploying a surveillance aircraft and supplying air-to-air missiles.

This Middle east crisis was triggered by US-Israel military strike on Iran on Friday 28 February, killing approximately forty key members of the Iranian regime, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Australia will share intelligence with both the aggressors, enabling them to target and destroy Iranian assets. Australian public is being hoodwinked into believing that the military intervention is defensive.

Australia once again finds itself supporting the clandestine Israeli strategy of destabilising the region and extending its borders unilaterally through pre-emptive strike based on the dubious claim of an imminent existential threat.

And by siding with US, Australia risk being drawn into a moral abyss where the only currencies are power and greed.

A popular rebellion to overthrow the clergy-dominated government after bombardment didn’t materialise as expected by Israel and the USA.

Questions are now being asked about the rational for the war and the end game. Joe Kent, the former Trump-appointed Director of National Counter Terrorism Centre and an ardent MAGA supporter, claims that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the US.

Not surprising, many countries, including US allies, deem it to be an illegal war. Australia could possibly be dragged further in the mire at the behest of USA and Israel.

If so, this would not be a badge of honour even if its military assets are deployed in ostensibly non-combat operations, like helping vessels navigate the Hormuz Strait!

US Middle East foreign policy, spurred by unpredictable impulses of the megalomaniac President, is laced with ultra-religious Christian Zionist ideology that calls for USA’s unconditional support for territorial expansion of Israel and elimination of certain “nonbelievers”.

Mike Huckabee (US Ambassador to Israel) and senators Ted Cruze, Lindsay Graham and many other prominent conservatives in the Republican Party (Neocons) justify the ill-legal bloodshed from the lens of biblical prophecies as does the Secretary of War, Peter Hegseth, with a distinctly Crusader zeal.

Many Australians wonder whether their country has tied itself unwittingly to a war driven by an extreme religious ideology which exploits faith by invoking a questionable nationalistic objective.

Australia’s involvement in such a war, however benign, runs the risk of reinforcing such beliefs, which taints its image, undermines its values and corrodes its social cohesion.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – mired in domestic scandal and international warrants for his actions in Gaza – has been pushing unsuccessfully for a pre-emptive attack on Iran for several decades with previous US Presidents.

He visited President Donald J Trump an unprecedented seven times in one year! One cannot be too critical of Bibi though; no country can tolerate missiles lobbed at its citizen by a hostile neighbour, which is what Iran’s proxies – Hezbollah and the Houthis – have been doing.

Supporting the USA in this war raises big risks for Australia. US foreign policy brazenly projects hegemony over independent nations and seeks to capture their resources.

Venezuela is a case in point; imperial shadows have been cast over Greenland, Gaza, Cuba and parts of Canada.

Against this background and the defence relationship between the two nations, one can legitimately question whether Australia through its involvement in the conflict will end up aiding and abetting in the plunder in the Middle east?

That is, will it continue to allow US and Israel to operate in a state of exception where the mandatory code of conduct of Geneva Convention is conveniently ignored and multilateral institutions bypassed?

There is no question that the theocratic authoritarian state is brutal: Iran has clamped down on its youth, its movements for reform and enforced strict dressing codes for women.

Ignoring the Iranian state’s violence against its own people would be a failing of humanity, but there is no liberation in liquidation.

However, containing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) is in the interest of Australia which has been a victim of their nefarious activity on its shores.

President Trump unequivocally claimed that the massive US bombardment had totally obliterated Iranian nuclear program. Such a projection of US raw power occurred after he unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear deal.

The late Iranian leader, Ali Khamenei, had issued a fatwa in early 2000 prohibiting production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.

The claim made by Israel and the USA that Iran was just weeks away from having a nuclear weapon is contestable. One is entitled to be cynical as it eerily resembles the great lie on weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Regime change has been cited as an objective of the war in Iran, more stridently pursued by Israel than the USA. There are similar echoes in the Australian political class.

But the history of western powers’ intervention in the Middle East has left only humanitarian debris, not representative and responsible governments: invasion of Iraq in 2003, the shattered statehood of Libya following the 2011 military action, and the re-emergence of Taliban rule in Afghanistan after 20 years of failed nation-building are some examples of failure.

It is possible that if the current regime has not been completely dislodged, a hollowed-out Iran with a weak government will emerge which may struggle to keep the Hormuz strait open, causing perpetual instability in shipping oil.

Also, the next generation of leaders may be more radical than those they replaced. Angered by death and destruction, they would have a strong incentive to fast track their nuclear ambition for their own survival. These may be the perverse outcomes of the illegal war.

Australia participated in military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now finds itself in the national interest cross hairs in respect to an illegal American war of choice?

It is in Australia’s interest to curb the IRG’s terrorist activities as well as the wilful violence inflicted by the marauding Israeli settlers on Palestinians, often with tacit approval from Israeli army.

The war currently raging in the Middle east has undoubtedly imperilled Australia’s energy security. Australia walks a tight rope – relying on US for defence and China for prosperity.

It needs to weigh whether its energy security interest will be better served by working closely with China and the Asian countries rather than acting as US sheriff marshalling oil tankers.

Putting Australia on a war footing to speed up transition to renewables best serves our national interest pertaining to energy security. That’s where the national effort should be.