For the record, I certainly support the US/Israeli military actions against Iran. Whilst regime change would be a great result, even if the current war leaves the Iranian military and revolutionary guard neutered, it will be a good thing for the world and the long-suffering people of Iran. Albo has done the right thing supporting it.

Is it legal under international law? Funnily enough, it probably is. 

Article 51 of the UN Charter (see Google) “recognises the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a UN member, allowing force until the Security Council takes necessary measures.”

That’s a moot point, as China and Russia can always veto any Security Council resolution that may help the US and/or Israel. So, as Iran has attacked Israel and US troops in the Middle East on numerous occasions over the last three years, especially Israel using its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, the two good guys in all this seem well within their rights in responding how they have.

I am not going into any sort of detailed discussion on the war’s progress; suffice to say there are already many obvious lessons from it as far as Australia is concerned. We already have, it seems, a real problem with diesel fuel supply and storage, so essential, especially in our rural areas, to ensure we all get fed. Fuel stocks are still far too low. They should be at least 90 days and not 34. We also need them to be stored in Australia, not the US. We only have two working fuel refineries. We need to reopen the six we closed in the last six years and maybe build some more.

We need to urgently drill for more gas and open new fields and extend existing ones. I’m not sure if we can reopen old oil fields or even open a few new ones, but it would be great if we could.

Well done to our government for offering asylum to the brave Iranian women’s football team, who protested against their regime’s treatment of its own citizens by refusing to sing the Iranian national anthem last week. The regime has said these girls will probably be shot as traitors when they get home.

There is little other practical help we can give. We only have one available destroyer able to go there. Mind you, the useless Poms are no better — and their destroyer is still being repaired due to the dockworkers only being able to work 9 to 5 due to lack of defence funding. Starmer, in the meantime, has increased the UK’s bloated welfare budget by 26 billion pounds (in November last year). Trump needs to force the UK to transfer that 26 billion to defence ASAP, which would thus force Starmer to keep his promise to increase defence spending. We have a budget coming up in May, and there is no excuse to not include in it a significant increase in our defence budget. We are as bad as the UK.

In the meantime, here’s hoping this war will end soon and the people of Iran will be better off for it.