ANZUS, Afghanistan - and where’s Billy Hughes or John Monash when you need them?

The last Australians to stand up to bullying by the United States were World War I General John Monash and prime minister Billy Hughes.

Monash refused to budge when the US insisted its soldiers would not fight under foreign command in Monash’s meticulously planned 1918 battle at Hamel.

Monash stood his ground, the US backed down and Hamel remains a textbook battle of all arms involvement, command and control.

At the 1919 peace conference at Versailles when Democrat US President Wilson dismissed Hughes as representing a nation of a mere five million, the latter feistily responded, “I represent 60,000 dead.

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ANZUS, Afghanistan – and where’s Billy Hughes or John Monash when you need them?

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