For Anthony Albanese – as well as Mark Carney and Keir Starmer – to go along with Trump and Netanyahu’s cynical ploy negates any sense of moral authority we possess – a catastrophe for the rules-based order * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The ease and speed with which Australia, along with Britain and Canada, fell in behind Donald Trump’s attack on Iran was startling. For a country that is constantly trumpeting the essentiality of the international rules-based order in preserving global peace and stability, Australia is shameless in its ability to slide into the American slipstream. And to hide behind Iran’s alleged possession of nuclear weapons – or at least its ability to produce them – as justification for the attacks and the obliteration of Iran’s governing leadership, portrays us as gullible, duplicitous or both. Trump claimed that Iran’s ability to construct nuclear weapons was destroyed last June. Truth or lie? It cannot be both. The claim that Iran had the ability to do so until last weekend was either true or false. It could not be both. So what exactly was the case for yet another unprovoked and illegal attack on Iran? Allan Behm advises on international and security affairs at the Australia Institute in Canberra Continue reading...