Retired Major-General Roger Noble on the horror and unavoidability of war
ASPICanberra
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Retired Major-General Roger Noble AO, DSC, CSC joins STW to talk about his new book, My Long War, covering his remarkable career over six operational deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor. The book is part memoir, part reflection on warfare and humanity, part critique of conventional military and strategic thinking. It pulls no punches while honouring the people he served with, and it's packed with cracking anecdotes from an extraordinary life.
As Roger puts it, some people simply can't be reasoned with—so however horrible it is, sometimes it has to be fought. His memorable analogy of one of the most famous fictional villains of recent decades is a stand out for fans of American author Cormac McCarthy. Roger talks about leadership, about understanding one’s enemy, and about working with coalition partners from the Americans to the Iraqis. He shares his criticisms of the disconnect between strategy and tactics in Afghanistan, his thoughts on the war crimes allegations stemming from Australia's involvement there and his views on the question of accountability. And he discusses what six deployments taught him about the science of warfare and the need for rational analysis.
Roger spent time with an international team destroying Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons stockpiles in 1992, returned to Iran in 2005 during the second Gulf War, and went back a third time in 2016 to help liberate Mosul from ISIS. He also served in East Timor in 2000-01 and twice in Afghanistan. He retired in 2021, and went on to become Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Ambassador.
Roger Noble, My Long War: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/b...
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Retired Major-General Roger Noble on the horror and unavoidability of war
ASPICanberra
817 views
Retired Major-General Roger Noble AO, DSC, CSC joins STW to talk about his new book, My Long War, covering his remarkable career over six operational deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor. The book is part memoir, part reflection on warfare and humanity, part critique of conventional military and strategic thinking. It pulls no punches while honouring the people he served with, and it's packed with cracking anecdotes from an extraordinary life.
As Roger puts it, some people simply can't be reasoned with—so however horrible it is, sometimes it has to be fought. His memorable analogy of one of the most famous fictional villains of recent decades is a stand out for fans of American author Cormac McCarthy. Roger talks about leadership, about understanding one’s enemy, and about working with coalition partners from the Americans to the Iraqis. He shares his criticisms of the disconnect between strategy and tactics in Afghanistan, his thoughts on the war crimes allegations stemming from Australia's involvement there and his views on the question of accountability. And he discusses what six deployments taught him about the science of warfare and the need for rational analysis.
Roger spent time with an international team destroying Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons stockpiles in 1992, returned to Iran in 2005 during the second Gulf War, and went back a third time in 2016 to help liberate Mosul from ISIS. He also served in East Timor in 2000-01 and twice in Afghanistan. He retired in 2021, and went on to become Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Ambassador.
Roger Noble, My Long War: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/b...
- “NATO-crats went on the offensive – breaching the understanding reached by Western leaders with then Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev – and expanded into most of eastern Europe..... The seeds of World War III are being planted..." (Justin Raimondo [analyst], 03/09/2014)
-"We ARE NOT on the path to WW III, we are already in WW III" (A Martyanov, military analyst)
- "World War III has started. Russia is fighting NATO and Russia fully understands this"(Western Escalation Threatens to Widen World War III, L Johnson, fmr CIA analyst)
- West’s arrogance pushing world to ‘point of no return’: Russian president, 14/06/2024
- “we can immediately see that none of these [US-NATO bloc] capabilities [being introduced] has any chance to avoid a NATO defeat. In other words, US commanders will soon have to face an even worse choice: defeat or nuclear war. ” (A Martyanov, Russian military analyst)
- “[Although Russia seeks to prevent this], Russia can see that the explosion of a global war is almost unavoidable and is prepared and will continue preparing…...” [Vladimir Putin] (At the Threshold of a Third World War, Southfront, 12/09/2016)
- “The Americans want to start two wars in the world: one in Europe, the other in Asia,” [Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye] (Note: The US is replicating the Ukraine close proximity military-missile architecture integration project in Taiwan), etc....
Multiple developing wars involve opposing coalitions. These wars continue to expand and escalate. In time they will be commonly recognised as one.
An unprecedented fuel and global economic crisis is coming. This precedes another unprecedented event, the conclusion of this developing nuclear era WW. Soon NATO-allied bloc arrogance and malice will transition to fear. There will be cause for fear.
When this latest developing WW concludes (near future) in an event that should be self-evident (this WW occurring in a nuclear era), the horrors this bloc has imposed on others will be eclipsed by the horrors this bloc will experience.