During Talisman Sabre in Rockhampton, as the US and Australian military arrived for the exercises, I asked a soldier, “What are you thinking about war on Iran?” They squirmed. “Not something I’m thinking about, ma’am,” they said.
They lied.
Australia has committed a frigate, a reconnaissance plane and 200 troops to support the USA in another attempt at regime change, this time in Iran. We are facing war again; driven by greedy imperial USA. And we know what this means, because we remember Iraq: the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, weapons of mass distraction, war crimes.
So …
1. Let us NOT believe the spokespeople from the Empire of Lies.
- Politicians from either ALP, LNP or the loopy-far-right – they’ve signed up for the US alliance.
- Military people – their careers are enhanced by war.
- Home Affairs and Defence bureaucrats – especially Puzzullo.
- Talking heads from think tanks likely funded by the CIA.
- Corporate media in the service of corporate profit.
2. Our situation is difficult and might feel hopeless or difficult but let us NOT be silent. Let’s talk about our fears and concerns about US #ForeverWar. At risk is a nuclear strike and the very annihilation of our planet.
And let’s listen back to others, and find out what might motivate them at a time like this.
Joining a mobilisation means changing the way our lives are arranged. We need to release time in our lives to act with others.
3. Let us NOT rely on, or get lost in, social media which can take your time from relationships in the real world. Relationships are more important for organising. Check social media and move on. Get out visibly with real people. We don’t need more information, except to occasionally give confidence in deciding and focusing action.
4. Let us NOT forget, that we have anti-war allies amongst those working against violence in our society. We have allies amongst domestic violence services, juvi and criminal justice movements, people truth-telling the Frontier Wars, those opposing torture of refugees, people in aid agencies and human rights justice orgs, those opposing violence and the mistreatment of children. These people are our allies and they too oppose #ForeverWar.
Organise: Things you CAN do 🙂
- Let Wage Peace support you to organise, organise, organise. Occupy public space.
- Use Wage Peace to amplify what you do.
- Remember the discipline of writing letters, texts and articles to newspapers and independent local papers.
- Organise locally.
- Join an Extinction Rebellion near you. Build rebellion events into your calendar every week and take along a new friend from time to time. War cements the extinction paradigm.
Read
- Read Andy Paine’s background piece “US, Iran, and war without end”.
- Read Vince Scappatura: The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy:
- Read Clinton Fernandes, What Uncle Sam Wants. (Palgrave, 2019) (Wage Peace can help access Fernandes work)
Make
- Make a banner … and take it places. A one person banner is easy to display – 2 people work together: One holds, one takes photos. Join with others!
Stay in touch, tell us what you get up to – you CAN reply to this email.
{{broadcaster.name}} and Graeme Dunstan
Make a banner – contact us for some tips to make it easier
US, Iran and war without end.
By ANDY PAINE, 27 June 2019
“Those of us who have lived most of our lives against the backdrop of disastrous US wars in the Middle East and Central Asia maybe harboured some hope that the defeat of Islamic State in October would lead to a bit of a break on that front.
Experience has taught us not to hold too tightly to that kind of hope. And so it is mostly with resigned disappointment that we see updates every few days on the escalating threats of war from Iranian and US leaders.
Donald Trump’s weapon of choice is twitter. Last month he tweeted “if Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran”. This week he followed it up with “Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration.” Iranian president Hassan Rouhani responded by calling Trump “mentally retarded”. The tweet was in response though to a more traditional firing of shots – the downing of a US drone worth $176 million which Iran said had invaded their airspace.”
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