The beginning of the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its two deputy sheriffs should wake us up o­n the changing order of the world and the 'gangsterism' method of resolving issues. Note that the original issue with Iraq was disarmament and then it turned into regime change by the US and its deputies. When you are strong militarily, you can just brush aside any appeal or logical explanations. Kofi Annan is helpless now and will be continue to be so in future.

This invasion should open the eyes of our country's defence planners. There are a couple of reasons why we should start planning our own defence more intensively.

One, we know a few of our Asean members are pro-Americans and admit it openly. Should any conflicts arise, the Americans will side them and may even be 'blind' to the truth as what happened in the United Nation Security Council recently.

I am fearful of our o­ngoing dispute with Singapore over the water issue. That can escalates into a war if it is not handled properly or if the current or the future Singapore government decides to take pre-emptive action to stop 'economy terrorism'.

Secondly, with Australia's dogmatic and blind support for US, it is quite obvious that its role as deputy sheriff for the Asia-Pacific region will be confirmed. This will be used to further the US' and Australia's interest in the region including economic domination. They will crack their whips o­n those who dissent and those who dare rebuke them.

John Howard has never hide his intention of using the pre-emptive action doctrine and his recent outburst has met with stinging rebuke from our neighbours except Singapore. Are both of them sharing the same doctrine?

Thirdly, by defying the UN Security Council, strong countries know that they can invade any countries for economic or political reasons by using US' pre-emptive doctrine and they can't be stopped. Therefore, it is pertinent that the proposed national service be accelerated and that we relook our national defence spending. We are now living in a world of "either you are with us or you are against us." That brings us back to the barbarians age and we have to thank the US for it.