Australia security official warns staff of 'drums of war'

A senior Australian security bureaucrat has warned his staff that free nations “again hear the beating drums” of war, as military tensions rise in the Asia-Pacific region

CANBERRA, Australia -- A senior Australian security bureaucrat warned his staff that free nations “again hear the beating drums” of war, as military tensions rise in the Asia-Pacific region. Department of Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo’s message to all department staff on Australia’s veterans’ day on Sunday, known as Anzac Day, was published in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday. “In a world of perpetual tension and dread, the drums of war beat – sometimes faintly and distantly, and at other times more loudly and ever closer,” Pezzullo said. “Today, as free nations again hear the beating drums and watch worryingly the militarisation of issues that we had, until recent years, thought unlikely to be catalysts for war, let us continue to search unceasingly for the chance for peace while bracing again, yet again, for the curse of war,” he added.