The Road to War- Adelaide 6pm Wed 29 March – new Australian documentary by David Bradbury

MAR 28 https://undueinfluence.substack.com/p/the-road-to-war?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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The Road to War is a new film directed and produced by David Bradbury, one of Australia’s most respected political documentary filmmakers. Bradbury has more than four decades of journalistic and filmmaking experience having covered many of the world’s trouble spots since the end of the Vietnam war, including Southeast Asia, Iraq, East Timor, revolutions and civil war in Central and South America, India, China, Nepal and West Papua.

In The Road To War, Bradbury interviews former Australian diplomats and numerous defence experts and analysts – including John Lander, Hugh White, Richard Tanter – about AUKUS and its massive arms procurement policies, including the nuclear-powered submarines, as well as the deteriorating US relationship with China and the implications for Australia.

Michelle Fahy, who appears in the film, discusses the undue influence of the arms industry on government policy, revolving door appointments and the arms industry links of various former defence ministers, and the anti-China position of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) including the conflicts inherent in ASPI’s funding arrangements, which Michelle wrote about in 2021.

Bradbury, a twice Oscar-nominated filmmaker, says: “I was driven to make this film because of the urgency of the situation. I fear we will be sucked into a nuclear war with China and/or Russia from which we will never recover, were some of us to survive the first salvo of nuclear warheads.”

He continues, “We must put a hard brake on Australia joining in the current arms race as the international situation deteriorates. We owe it to our children and future generations of Australians who already face the gravest existential danger of their young lives from climate change”.

There is general shared concern among those experts Bradbury interviews in the film that Australia is being set up as a US proxy in a potential war with China.

For example:

“Basing US B52 and stealth bombers in Australia is all part of preparing Australia to be the protagonist on behalf of the United States in a war against China. If the US can’t get Taiwan to be the proxy, or its patsy, it will be Australia,” says John Lander, former deputy Ambassador to China (1974-6), first Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran (1985-8) and three times head of the China section of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Military analyst, Dr Richard Tanter, fears the US military’s spy base at Pine Gap near Alice Springs, will be the first target of any direct confrontation between the US and Russia or China.

“The US military base at Pine Gap is critical to the US military’s global strategy, especially nuclear missile threats in the region. The generals in Moscow and Beijing would have it as a top priority on their nuclear Hit List,” says Tanter, whose 40 years of ground-breaking research on Pine Gap with colleague, Dr Des Ball, has provided the clearest insight into the unique role Pine Gap plays for the US.

“Should Russia or China want to send a signal to Washington that it means business and ‘don’t push us any further’, a one-off nuclear strike on Pine Gap would do that very effectively, without triggering retaliation from the US since it doesn’t take out a US mainland installation or city,” says Dr Tanter. “It’s horrible to talk about part of Australia in these terms but one has to be a realist with what comes to us by aligning ourselves with the US.”

Next screening: Adelaide, 6pm, Wednesday 29 March

The Adelaide screening is at the Capri Theatre. 6pm for drinks, screening at 7pm, followed by Q & A. Panellists include former SA Senator Rex Patrick along with filmmaker David Bradbury. Buy tickets online here.

Further screenings are being arranged for other cities and regional centres, including Canberra. Details TBA.