SEEING RED: An Empire is Sinking, and …

SEEING RED is an irregular column on Fremantle Shipping News by Barry Healy*. In this piece, Barry says Australia must not go down with it.

In 1502, the Portuguese admiral Vasco da Gama led his second expedition into the Indian Ocean, which was a turning point in world history. Until then, the region had been a vast maritime commons, where peaceful trade flourished and ports remained unwalled, trusting in centuries of mutual respect.

Da Gama’s arrival changed everything.

Off the Malabar Coast, western India, he came upon a massive vessel, the Miri, carrying some 400 Muslim pilgrims bound for Mecca. The ship was unarmed, as was the custom of the time. But the Portuguese saw not fellow travellers, but prey. They ransacked the cargo, stripped the passengers of their possessions, locked everyone in the hold, and set the ship ablaze. So large was the vessel that it took days to sink, with all aboard still trapped inside.

AI generated interpretation of the Miri incident

That atrocity was the beginning of European colonial violence in the Indian Ocean. It has echoed down the centuries. Today, the United States has inherited that imperial mantle, complete with its moral bankruptcy. However, the empire is in trouble.

The chaotic war of words, bombs and sanctions against Iran shows that Washington has either lost the conflict outright or lost the strategic initiative. Either way, the operative word is lost.

Consider the signs. In mid-August, aircraft from the United Arab Emirates shuttled to Iran as Emirati banks releasedbillions in frozen Iranian assets, including gold to shield themselves from potential retaliation. The US sanctions regime is visibly fraying.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are quietly forging new security frameworks, like the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, reducing their reliance on American protection.

Oman is in talks with Iran over joint management of the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump’s bizarre reaction on August 14 was to say: “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” He has also threatenedto “bomb the shit out of” Oman if it gets in the way of US actions.

Behind the diplomatic retreat, there is operational collapse. The US military, for all its gargantuan size, is struggling to sustain its own supply lines. Take the new 155mm shell factory in Mesquite, Texas, run by General Dynamics. It was hailed with a grand opening in May 2024. But by July 2026, a Department of War Inspector General report revealed it had yet to produce anything usable. Instead, the facility has become a $533 million fiasco: malfunctioning robots drop shells on the production line, the robots leak oil, causing fires and the foundations appear to be sinking.

It is a metaphor for the operations of the US state.

How does such a disaster happen? Through a procurement system that sidesteps competitive bidding and proper oversight, breeding inefficiency and corruption on a staggering scale.

And now, through the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, Australia has offered itself as a financial lifeline, effectively turning the Australian Treasury into an ATM for America’s crumbling military-industrial complex. We are not only bankrolling an empire in decline; we are strategically chaining ourselves to it.

As Red Spark Perth argued in its submission to the Fremantle hearing of the AUKUS Public Inquiry: “AUKUS rests on a backward-looking logic that romanticises Australia’s colonial and imperial past. Rather than deepening military alignment with distant powers, Australia would be better served by building solidarity and cooperation with the peoples of our region.”

That sentiment cuts to the heart of the matter. The era that began with Vasco da Gama’s flaming ship is drawing to a close. The imperial vessel flying the American flag is taking on water and Australia should not be aboard when it finally goes under.

* Barry Healy is a life-long Marxist who first came to Perth in the 1970s to establish the Resistance young socialist group. He was a founder of the Green Left and currently edits the Culture section of the Red Spark website.

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