- by Marcus Browning
- The Guardian
- Issue #2186
Rally against the war in the Middle East, 29 March (Palm Sunday), Boorloo/Perth.
Having reduced Gaza and the long-suffering Palestinian people to a state of ruin and desolation, the US-Israeli axis of destruction has now turned its murderous gaze and intent towards Iran – with Donald Trump threatening to “bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong.”
During a press conference at the White House on 6 April, the US president claimed that, “The entire country [Iran] can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.”
Trump also threatened that “a whole civilisation will die,” if Iran didn’t make an acceptable deal.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the US had carried out the largest volume of strikes against Iran since the first day of “Operation Epic Fury.” He further warned that the US military would “hit even harder,” signalling a major escalation in the conflict.
Despite talk of “freeing” the Iranian people, the US delusion that bombing would lead to an uprising and the installation of a pro-US puppet regime in Tehran was always a fairytale. Attacking schools, universities, and hospitals helps with the objective of destroying a country, not the liberation of its people. The only objective of such operations is to ensure that Iran is rendered a failed state and sent back to the pre-industrial age.
This is a war for US domination of the Middle East and the oil trade. Further wars against other nations are planned.
WAR SPREADS
At time of writing, peace talks held in Pakistan have failed. The talks seemed set up to fail. Israel has continued its murderous assault on Lebanon. As the futile talks ended, Israel has killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon, including 85 medics and 165 children. Iran had already indicated that attacks on Lebanon were a ‘red line,’ but Israel ignored this and its US backers made no effort to restrain the apartheid state.
DESPERATION
Behind the war are the forces of international capital and imperialism. They have become more and more ferocious and desperate as the movement against war and opposition to the economic and social policies of the governments representing the transnational corporations increase. The leaders and giant corporations of the United States head the drive to war and oppression.
In desperation, they have now thrown all caution to the wind and torn up long established norms of behaviour and international law. The war camp is no longer able to achieve its objectives by economic and political means and is more and more resorting to brute military force – invasion, occupation, the direct appointment of governments and the suppression of popular people’s movements.
In their deepening crisis the world’s major corporations are hell bent on plundering the globe’s natural resources and exploiting its labour as never before. In Australia as in other capitalist countries, these developments have forced the class divide wider and made the contradictions sharper.
NUCLEAR DANGER
It is with criminal disregard for the future of the people of the world that both the US and Israel refuse to rule out the use of nuclear weapons.
The only sane policy for the world is the complete elimination by all countries of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. The US leaders have consistently rejected such a demand in the past and are now using their huge stockpile of weapons of mass destruction to impose their military, economic, and political will on all other nations in the world without exception.
To this end, the US, its allies and the owners of the mass media are piling up lies and half-truths to deceive the people and justify the monstrous plans that they are now implementing. The threats to the world’s peace and security and to the sovereignty and independence of nations come from the United States and the global bully’s lackey countries such as Australia.
Australia should have no part in these criminal plans. The Australian government can and should instead make a contribution to peace rather than war by immediately withdrawing from AUKUS. The US spy and war-planning station at Pine Gap should be closed. US warships should be refused entry to Australian ports.
The Albanese government is morally and politically defeated. It is now becoming clearer that it serves another master and does not represent the Australian people. It ignores their opinions and tramples on their democratic rights. Our politicians have failed the people of Australia. They have failed the innocent victims of war.
There is a need to wage a political war for a new kind of government which will listen to the people and act in the people’s interests. A government which will end the military alliance with the US and close the US bases. A government of the people and for the people.
The time has come when war must be eliminated from the affairs of humanity and all disputes resolved by peaceful means, in accordance with the UN Charter.
PROTEST CONTINUES
This war concerns all Australians. There’s the impact on workers already stretched by a cost-of-living crisis as the cost of everything at all related to fuel increases. There’s Australia’s involvement – from providing valuable intelligence from the signals base at Pine Gap, to being part of the production chain for the F-35 jets Israel uses to bomb Iran and Lebanon.
The Albanese government tries to pretend its not involved, at the same time as it assures the world that it would do anything the US asked. The latest fig-leaf is the Wedgetail surveillance plane the Labor government sent to the Middle East. The plane was supposed to be helping Gulf states evade Iranian missiles, but Defence Minister Richard Marles has confirmed that the Wedgetail’s intelligence can be used by the US military. Marles maintains that the plane is “fundamentally on a defensive mission,” but he’s not fooling anyone. The information the plane provides is being given to the US as it carries out an illegal war.
‘WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED’
Federal and state attempts to outlaw protests have nothing to do with protecting communities but are about repressing expressions of support for the Palestinian people. Governments cannot tolerate the fact that a majority of the public oppose their shameful complicity in Israel’s genocide, evidenced by the millions of people who are taking to the streets around the world.
The anti-protest laws have given the police unprecedented powers – in particular the NSW Minns government which has armed the police with military-level weapons. The laws will affect not only the marches for Palestine, but the wider right to freedom of expression, association and assembly that underpins all protest rights, affecting all causes and movements.
The call from the protest movement is: Join us to make this clear to governments – we will not be silenced.
War is an obscenity, a product of an obscene system based on theft. The millions of people around the world who are taking to the streets against the US/Israel war on Iran and Lebanon and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, are in effect marching against plans by the biggest robber barons in history to re-divide the world.
