Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Five Points concerning the War
Here are five points that are hardly ever mentioned:
1) The war is NOT about Saddam or Weapons of Mass Destruction. The War is about OIL... who controls it and the currency in which it is paid for. NOBODY mentions that Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and even Dubya himself, have or had large numbers of shares and stock options in not a few US oil companies. Their aim is to break OPEC;
2) The Americans GAVE the Weapons of Mass Destruction to Saddam (indeed they set up, and are propping up, all the corrupt Middle Eastern regimes, Arab and Israeli). Where were you when Saddam was using these US-donated weapons to kill Iranians and Kurds, AS A US ALLY!
3) The US is the biggest possessor of of Weapons of Mass Destruction on the planet... they have never ratified any Treaty on Chemical or Biological Disarmament and we only have their word that they are reducing their nuclear stockpile. Who is the rogue state?
4) The United Nations can't 'do its job' because successive US Administrations have starved it of funds. The UN acted for years as the New York Office of the US State Department... when it defied the US, the money was choked off;
5) The 'plan' for US military adminstration of Iraq was in place half-way through 2002. Either John Howard concealed it from the Australian people, or Bush and Co concealed it from us. In either case, our leaders cannot be trusted.
How do we solve the 'problem'? By DIPLOMACY, and y continuing the inspections. If Saddam outfoxes the doyens of the State Department in verbal dexterity, so be it. The US was NEVER elected or appointed to be the world's policeman - as I asked once before, do you LIKE living in a world where a government can only govern at the behest of the US? Bush Junior is a religious fanatic and ex-alcoholic, advised by right wing Christian organizations, who wants to bring on Armageddon. Blair is a mouthpiece and Howard doesn't even rate a mention overseas.
1) The war is NOT about Saddam or Weapons of Mass Destruction. The War is about OIL... who controls it and the currency in which it is paid for. NOBODY mentions that Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and even Dubya himself, have or had large numbers of shares and stock options in not a few US oil companies. Their aim is to break OPEC;
2) The Americans GAVE the Weapons of Mass Destruction to Saddam (indeed they set up, and are propping up, all the corrupt Middle Eastern regimes, Arab and Israeli). Where were you when Saddam was using these US-donated weapons to kill Iranians and Kurds, AS A US ALLY!
3) The US is the biggest possessor of of Weapons of Mass Destruction on the planet... they have never ratified any Treaty on Chemical or Biological Disarmament and we only have their word that they are reducing their nuclear stockpile. Who is the rogue state?
4) The United Nations can't 'do its job' because successive US Administrations have starved it of funds. The UN acted for years as the New York Office of the US State Department... when it defied the US, the money was choked off;
5) The 'plan' for US military adminstration of Iraq was in place half-way through 2002. Either John Howard concealed it from the Australian people, or Bush and Co concealed it from us. In either case, our leaders cannot be trusted.
How do we solve the 'problem'? By DIPLOMACY, and y continuing the inspections. If Saddam outfoxes the doyens of the State Department in verbal dexterity, so be it. The US was NEVER elected or appointed to be the world's policeman - as I asked once before, do you LIKE living in a world where a government can only govern at the behest of the US? Bush Junior is a religious fanatic and ex-alcoholic, advised by right wing Christian organizations, who wants to bring on Armageddon. Blair is a mouthpiece and Howard doesn't even rate a mention overseas.
An Open Letter to the Staff of the US Embassy, Canberra
Ladies and Gentleman,
Poor Tom Schieffer [US Amassador in Australia] appeared on our TV screens yesterday, looking like a startled owl, to express the fervent hope that there would be no surfacing of anti-American sentiment in Australia.
There won’t be, Tom, if you have the courage to tell that whiny-voiced, bible-thumping dry–drunk in the Oval Office, that many Australians want the US to get out of Iraq, that many of us feel that the concept of ‘American civilization’ as defined by PNAC is oxymoronic and certainly not worth dying for.
The born-again ex-alky running your show has given the world a choice — either live in the American Empire or suffer another Holocaust. You have a choice, too — either resign, as several of your more principled colleagues in other embassies have done, or be forever written up as the most willing accomplices to mass-murder since World War II.
Poor Tom Schieffer [US Amassador in Australia] appeared on our TV screens yesterday, looking like a startled owl, to express the fervent hope that there would be no surfacing of anti-American sentiment in Australia.
There won’t be, Tom, if you have the courage to tell that whiny-voiced, bible-thumping dry–drunk in the Oval Office, that many Australians want the US to get out of Iraq, that many of us feel that the concept of ‘American civilization’ as defined by PNAC is oxymoronic and certainly not worth dying for.
The born-again ex-alky running your show has given the world a choice — either live in the American Empire or suffer another Holocaust. You have a choice, too — either resign, as several of your more principled colleagues in other embassies have done, or be forever written up as the most willing accomplices to mass-murder since World War II.
UN Resolutions
Contrary to the plaintive burbling of the radio shock-jocks and tabloid newspapers the sky will not fall in if the US fails to gets its own way, nor will the United Nations have ‘failed’ if the famous British second resolution is vetoed.
As a matter of fact, the good ole USofA is just getting a taste of its own medicine. In the 57 years of the UN’s history, the US has used the dreaded veto 73 times, a tally second only to that of the Soviet Union and its successor, Russia.
Of course, we all know that our ‘great and powerful friend’, the USofA is always in the right, always the ‘good guy,’ and never, ever acts immorally or illegally. Presumably, then, the ludicrous name-calling and dummy-spitting by the US (and lackey) administrations is somehow to be understood as the ‘noble rhetoric of civilized human beings outraged by intransigent barbarism.’ As if….
As a matter of fact, the good ole USofA is just getting a taste of its own medicine. In the 57 years of the UN’s history, the US has used the dreaded veto 73 times, a tally second only to that of the Soviet Union and its successor, Russia.
Of course, we all know that our ‘great and powerful friend’, the USofA is always in the right, always the ‘good guy,’ and never, ever acts immorally or illegally. Presumably, then, the ludicrous name-calling and dummy-spitting by the US (and lackey) administrations is somehow to be understood as the ‘noble rhetoric of civilized human beings outraged by intransigent barbarism.’ As if….
Gouging Out Their Eyes?
[In his National Press Club speech, Australian Prime Minister, John howard, parrotted a recently pulished book to claim that Saddam Hussein commits human rights violations against his own people, including 'gouging out the eyes of children in front of their parents' to otain confessions of misdeeds]
“Gouging out the eyes of children of front of their parents?” Hmmmm, I remember reading about another war, nearly ninety years ago, when young men were spurred to war by atrocity stories of ‘the Horrible Huns, rampaging through Belgium, pinning babies to barn doors with bayonets!’
That turned out to be so much bovine faecal matter — and so will this piece of yellow journalism. But what can you expect from the man who brought you ‘Children Overboard?’ Where was John Winston Howard when REAL atrocities were being committed in Chile under the auspices of the same Evil Empire which is urging us to march into Iraq to defend ‘freedom and Western Civilization’?
“Gouging out the eyes of children of front of their parents?” Hmmmm, I remember reading about another war, nearly ninety years ago, when young men were spurred to war by atrocity stories of ‘the Horrible Huns, rampaging through Belgium, pinning babies to barn doors with bayonets!’
That turned out to be so much bovine faecal matter — and so will this piece of yellow journalism. But what can you expect from the man who brought you ‘Children Overboard?’ Where was John Winston Howard when REAL atrocities were being committed in Chile under the auspices of the same Evil Empire which is urging us to march into Iraq to defend ‘freedom and Western Civilization’?
