America's dwindling missile stockpiles are forcing Australia to confront the strategic risks of ever-deeper alliance integration, writes Wayne Hawkins. Now play the ideological-war scenario forward, because that's the one Taiwan actually is. That is what a forever war actually means in practice: not endless intensity, but an absence of any point at which either side can stop without losing. Pine Gap operates under a policy called “full knowledge and concurrence” — Australia is told everything the base does and formally approves it. When Defence Minister Richard Marles was asked in June 2025 whether Australia supported U.S. operations against Iran, he didn't deny it.