/lit/ - Literature

>>2299596

And if we're talking sad moments in Australian history:

-The Fall of Singapore to Japs on bicycles with Australians stuck making a token defence for an ungrateful Britain and then being subject to some of the cruellest P.O.W. treatment ever seen.

- Whitlam standing by and letting the American-backed Indonesians take East Timor despite the East Timorese government being one of the few surprisingly competent post-colonial socialist regimes, and the fact that it led to a massive body count on our front-doorstep including Australian citizens and actually undermined regional stability contrary to why Whitlam stood by in the first place.

- Whitlam's dismissal and his inability to sell his government's successes at the subsequent election because his government was average with their economic credentials.

Some would bring up the Eureka Stockade but that was losing a battle but getting everything you wanted afterwards.

>>2299620

Pol Pot: the hands-on history teacher you wish you had.

>>2299666

I'd argue if there's anything that's worse than colonisation, it's fucking rapid decolonisation. Thank fuck for the Chinese who, for all their ruthless pragmatism and moral bankruptcy, are accidentally doing something about it in some countries with infrastructure investment whilst everybody else just sells arms and takes in a couple of refugees with heaps of hand-wringing.

>>2299673

Mustard gas, flamethrowers and pointless loss of life due to outdated military tactics. What's not to love.