PROPAGANDA REIGNS SUPREME

WAR WITH IRAQ OR ATTACK ON IRAQ?

WHAT'S YOUR SPIN?

What a great sight it is. One after another TV presenter surrounded by men in suits dishing out pro war propaganda. Is there no end to western arrogance? Is it no wonder terrorism is finding fertile ground around the world? When the Iraqi ambassador delivered a considered and passionate speech about the illegality of the war and the obsequiousness of the UN, Channel Nine's Steve Liebmann didn't even bother to try to understand what he was saying.

Instead of reading pro war emails and rolling his eyes about a couple of critical emails Steve Liebmann should be engaging people who have something to say that isn't written by a Defense Department official.

There's no point being ashamed at the pathetic compliance of some (are there any dissenters?) of our media commentators. We need to get angry and begin a serious political movement that challenges the galling devotion to the American line.

When Saddam Hussein's family shares the spoils of government westerners talk of a corrupt Hussein dynasty. So why aren't the same criticisms made of the son of George? And how fitting that the spoils of war are to be shared by Bush and Chaney's mates? Does that rile anyone in the media?

And no one surely believes that nonsense about men such as George Bush the younger coming to power democratically. In Australia and in the USA, political and media dynasties and concentrations of power are a way of life. Sure we can protest. But massive protests haven't stopped Howard or convinced the Age Newspaper to editorialise against the war. And now the authorities in NSW are threatening to ban protest. Given Premier Bob Carr's love of all things American and his exploitation of the right wing law and order card this is probably no surprise.

Just as we'd be better off without John Howard and subservient parliaments, so too would Iraq be better off without Hussein. But US troops aren't in Iraq to liberate the Iraqi people. They're there to further the USA's hegemony over the Middle East. And how much courage does it take to storm through a bedraggled Iraq where there is nothing like the weapons of mass destruction available to the USA?

I bumped into General Peter Cosgrove and his wife in the Qantas lounge not so long ago. I found him a sincere, engaging and decent man. But as I watched him deliver the party line alongside Senator Robert Hill in the early days of the war I felt so disappointed. Charming and polite in a way the US warmongers could never be, he shouldn't have to justify this attack on Iraq.

We could have found another way to 'liberate' the people of Iraq. We could have started by removing the sanctions so the country became prosperous and the people had the energy to rid themselves of Hussein. Instead we've marched in like a western cowboy and turned ourselves into a little bullyboy tagging behind the head bully.

When I played football I hated bullies and cowards who whacked people when they weren't looking. But as I watch the US command gloat about its conquest I think of the bullies and king hit cowards I came across. Sorry Peter, I think this is all wrong and you're a better man than that. I think we've joined the ranks of the bullies.

A DIVERGENT VIEW FROM THE STAGE MANAGED US CIRCUS

'Dead bodies are everywhere', Napalm Used In Attack...03/22/03
by Mitch Battros (ECTV)

I just have one thing to say...what else are we not being told.
This article is not for the weak at heart. I mean this folks. I
know I have a great deal of spiritual minded subscribers. What
you are about to read may push you to the limit.

"Dead bodies are everywhere," a US officer reported by radio. "I
pity anybody who's in there," a marine sergeant said. "We
told them to surrender." Full Article:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749944836.html

Mitch Battros
Producer - Earth Changes TV
http://www.earthchangestv.com

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Draft Impeachment Resolution Against President George W. Bush
by FRANCIS A. BOYLE

Wherefore George Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants
impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

http://www.counterpunch.org/boyle01172003.html

Children among 50 killed in bombings:

US-led airstrikes on the southern Iraqi city of Basra
killed 50 people and injured 27 others, according to a
report by the Qatari satellite television Al-Jazeera, which
showed gruesome images of two dead children with
their heads blown up lying on the floor of a hospital.

Another image showed five corpses lying side by side
including that of a child. The correspondent said it was a
family.

The injured were shown lying on the floor and on beds at
the Al-Jumhuriya hospital which, according to Al-Jazeera, was plunged into darkness after electricity was cut off in the bombardment.

 

A VIEW FROM CHINA

Living in China with my Chinese wife it used to be good to be able to reply to the inevitable question "Are you American?" with "No I'm Australian."
There would be a smile, a nod of appreciation or the words, 'Ah Australia is a lovely country.'

All very polite of course (Chinese being a polite people) but underscoring a deep distrust on the part of ordinary Chinese for the last remaining superpower. All that has changed in the last week however. My colleagues at my university in Dalian and indeed my students are embarrassed to discuss the war in my presence lest I become upset at the now generally held opinion that Australia has become an American client state .

Out of frustration I raised the question myself at a meeting of English majors and their teachers the other day.
The questions asked of me were all 'Why?'

"Why has Australia ignored the United Nations and International law?"
"Why does Australia follow blindly the wishes of (Little ) Bush?"
"Why has Australian surrendered its independence?"
I reply of course that the vast majority of Australians oppose the war.
"Why do your ALP leaders oppose the war but support their soldiers who are invading Iraq?"

The student who asked this question, although in my Australian studies class, obviously didn't understand that in a democracy politicians often like to have two bob each way.
Now that I had initiated the conversation it soon became clear that Australia was on the nose. We have always been considered somewhat different here. Australia was considered a friend of China and indeed of the third world.

We were seen as not being as straight laced as the Brits or as arrogant as the Americans. Basically we were seen as giving everyone a "fair go".

Not any more. Chinese are basically distrustful of America's intentions, and now (at least among ordinary Chinese) we are equated with them. With the meeting over I decided to drop in on a Chinese friend at his shoe shine shop. He had a number of customers, all discussing the war of course.

'Where are you from?' I was asked.

"Canada", I replied.

"Ah Canada is a lovely country."

Ken White

Dalian China

baikaishui69@hotmail.com

Following the Bombs by Doug Johnson

27 March 2003
I'm overwhelmed and tired. For three days now I've concentrated on visiting injured civilians in hospitals and seeing bombed sites.

This morning I accompanied April to the Al Kindi Hospital where we
interviewed an extended family of 25 that had been living in six houses together on one farm just outside of Baghdad. At 6:00 PM yesterday, B-52s dropped cluster bombs on their farm, destroying all six houses, killing four and severely injuring many others. Even the farm animals were killed.

We were told that yellow cylinders landed in their yard, and when they and the animals crept closer to investigate, the bombs detonated. The father of one of these families, Saaed Shalish, age 36 - a farmer, lost two sons but he has not yet been told. Doctors tell me that he's in critical condition.

http://iraqpeaceteam.org/pages/diaries.html

How about joining in the uprising against this injustice being perpetrated by our rogue administration. Use your publishing
positions to do something to stop this war.