Remembering people on Anzac Day who gave their lives defending their country is a noble custom in Australia. But the situation in the Middle East urges us to broaden our take on armed conflict.

As always the devil is in the detail.

Because the USA is providing arms that Israel is using to attack Iran, Iran is attacking American military bases in countries that host them.

We are one of them: Pine Gap, 19 km from Alice Springs, is broadly claimed to be the most important offshore military spy facility of the USA. Are we just lucky that Iran apparently doesn’t have rockets that can fly far enough to strike it?

And so in our daily lives the public perception of what’s happening is the sum of millions of conversations, news reports, politicians’ statements, social media posts, assumptions, fact, lies, distortions as well as the truth.

Reluctance of some media to call a spade a spade stands in the way of creating clarity. Here’s a snippet to illustrate.

“Why doesn’t the stock market seem to care?”

Good question, part of the pitch for the ABC’s Global Roaming this week. Except it didn’t ask it.

Guest Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, was explicit about the stock markets’ ups and downs in response to Donald Trump either escalating the attack on Iran or downscaling it.

Prof Wolfers also gave an account of his early job as a runner for bookies on Australian horse racing tracks, and his admiration of punters who could predict the outcomes of a race.

This did not prompt Latika Bourke, co-presenter with Geraldine Doogue, to ask along these lines: “Who knows best what Trump is going to do? Is it not Trump? Does this not make him the quintessential global inside trader?”

We asked the ABC to comment.

This article appeared on Alice Springs News on 25 April 2026.