Takver's Soapbox - Against a war on Iraq, protest for peace in Melbourne

18 Mar 2003: John HoWARd, Prime Minister of Australia, has authorised Australian troops to invade Iraq with US forces. This is clearly a war of aggression, which the UN Security Council refuses to sanction.

The Invasion of Iraq

Daily vigil at American Consulate 553 St Kilda Road Melbourne, Monday to Friday 8am to 7pm, Women for Peace: No Weapons No Wars, in conjunction with the Moreland Peace Group.

Daily vigil outside State Library Swanston st Melbourne

Defence Plaza Picket Every Monday: 7.30am onwards. Defence Plaza, 661 Bourke st (Just up from Spencer St). Nonviolent weekly picket and campaign of civil disobedience organised by Direct Action Peace Network.

10 April - Slaughter, guilt, comfort and denial - Carmen Lawrence in Webdiary 9 April.
"Despite the thump and stutter of war, there is an eerie silence in Australia. So many people have all but stopped watching and listening to the incessant, if sanitised, coverage of the war. They've turned off the "militainment". They're not ringing or writing to their MPs. They've cut back their consumption to the necessities of life and zipped their purses. They're bunkered down like the poor wretches in Baghdad, many with their fingers in their ears and their eyes covered. It's as if they have decided to change the subject, to avert their eyes, pull the curtains and mind their own business."

8 April - Killing Civilians, the Immoral Face of War - Robert Fisk

Ali Ismaeel Abbas, 12

"The man opens the palms of his hands, the way Arabs do when they want to express impotence. "What can we do?" they always say, but the man is silent. But I'm glad. How, after all, could I ever tell him that Safa Karim must die for Sept. 11, for George Bush's fantasies and Tony Blair's moral certainty and for Paul Wolfowitz's dreams of "liberation" and for the "democracy" which we are blasting our way through these people's lives to create?". Or try explaining the need for war to ALI Ismaeel Abbas, 12, when a missile obliterated his home and most of his family, leaving him orphaned, badly burned - and blowing off both his arms.

4 April - Wailing children, the wounded, the dead: victims of the day cluster bombs rained on Babylon - Robert Fisk
"But something terrible happened around Hillah this week, something unforgivable and something contrary to international law. One hesitates, as I say, to talk of human rights in this land of torture but if the Americans and British don't watch out, they are likely to find themselves condemned for what they have always – and rightly – accused Iraq of: war crimes." Or read another report in the British Mirror

4 April - Use of Unconventional Weapons Will US Forces use Chemical or biological weapons in the battle of Baghdad and attribute it to Iraq?

24 March - Pictures of civilian casualties of the war Meet some of the recipients of the terrorism Australia has brought to Iraq.
The war in pictures (Warning: These depict the reality and horror of war) More Pictures

20 Mar 2003: Read Takver's Open Letter to John Howard

Print out a Peace Poster

It is time to make a stand against the warmongering of the greatest rogue state in the world, the United States of America. The U.S. has the largest stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction of any nation, including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Its military industrial complex sells ingredients and technology for the production of weapons of mass production to numerous countries, including in the past to Iraq. The government of the United States refuses to sign or abide by international agreements including:

CIA analyst Stephen Pelletiere (ret. prof at the Army War College), exposes the Bush Cabal's motives and plans. Pelletiere was a senior analyst with the CIA for Iraq and Iran. He confirms that this war is about the control of oil, and that Iraq cannot be considered a military threat. He also exposes the lie that the Kurds of Halabja, in March 1988, were killed intentionally by the Iraqi military, but were civilian casualties arising from battles in which both Iran and Iraq used chemical weapons.(Two sixteen minute streaming videos.)

This is the country our Prime Minister, John Howard, wants us to follow to war! Who will profit from this war? The United States based Oil companies and the arms manufacturers.

John Howard says "have your beef with the Government, have your beef with me, do not have your beef with the men and women of the Australian Defence Force", and indeed that is the case. I say bring the troops home to avoid being killed, to avoid ingesting depleted uranium, a weapon of mass destruction which the US forces will use, to avoid being indicted for crimes against humanity. And when our military forces do come home, I will support adequate compensation and recognition of their medical conditions from Veterans Affairs.

In all, between 800,000 and one million Australians marched to stop the war on Iraq on the weekend of 14-16 February (see Melbourne Protests for Peace). Opinion polls continue to show a large majority opposed to Australia's involvement without UN authorisation.

Most people are aware of the nature of Saddam Hussein's regime, but does that justify a military invasion and occupation? There are many countries with brutal military regimes, none of which are being proposed for invasion and occupation. Invasion and occupation inflicts massive casualties on the civilian population. As the Iraqi regime is so brutal, perhaps we should also immediately grant any Iraqi refugees permanent residency visas.

On the question of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, the US government sold Anthrax spores and base chemicals to the Iraq regime in the 1980s. If it is good enough to demand that Iraq's chemical and biological weapons be inspected and destroyed, surely it is good enough for the same to occurr with other countries, starting with the USA. It was Anthrax from its own stockpiles that was sent anonymously by post after September 11 2001, yet we do not see any rigid accountability of those stockpiles:

The Bush government is full of hypocrisy. Just look at how the USA has used its veto on the security council in the last 30 years.

Iraq's oil fields are the second largest known reserves in the world. The war on Iraq is about oil and profits. George Bush and Cheney, and other cabinet members have backgrounds in the oil industry. But it is also ideologically driven. Many of them are also members of a right wing Think Tank called The Project for the New American Century. The invasion of Iraq is the first stage for American control of the Iraq oil fields and literally, world domination under a new socio-economic Pax Americana:

That the Australian Government is an accomplice in this immoral and avaricious invasion will come home to haunt us. The true Axis of evil are the Governments of the USA, Britain and Australia, who are imposing nothing less than corporate fascism on a world scale.

The State terrorism of Bush, Blair, Howard and Saddam Hussein must all be rejected. Brian Martin, an anarchist and nonviolence activist, has put forward A nonviolent plan to oust Saddam. Read his other writings on peace, war and nonviolence.

The time has come to say an emphatic NO TO WAR. But with the intransigence of our Governments, it means doing more than signing another petition, attending another rally, although these are necessary to do. It needs to be made clear that the profits of war will no longer be tolerated. No Business as Usual.

The horrors of war are many, but at the level of the common folk there are no victors: it is the survivors who feel the human suffering and deprivation caused by the generals and politicians. It will be the families of the dead and injured in Iraq, as well as the US or Australia that will be forced to endure the ongoing consequences of war.

Against Terrorism, Against War Melbourne Protests for Peace in 2003

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