BY ADRIAN D'HAGE
[The following is an abridged version of a speech made by retired brigadier Adrian D'Hage, a Vietnam War veteran and head of defence security for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, to the Public Meeting for Peace held in the Brisbane Town Hall, November 27.]
Hardly anyone has noticed — but why are we sending an element of the 16th Air Defence Regiment to defend ships deployed in the Arabian Sea against the Taliban air force — an air force that in the first few days of this war in Afghanistan was reduced to a heap of twisted metal?
And why are we sending F/A-18 Hornets to Diego Garcia — not to operate over Afghanistan but again to defend ships against attack from the air?
It is a question the government would rather you not ask. I will come to the answer a little later.
I suppose it is a little unusual to have a soldier address a peace rally and given my remarks over the past few weeks, I dare say I am now permanently off the defence department's Christmas card list — if indeed I was ever on it.
But on the subject of conflict, as a last resort, I am not against going to war, although I can tell you from personal experience, it is a rather ugly business.
The prime minister has said our participation is the will of the people. There is only one problem with that. In the present case, the people were never asked. But it is without doubt, the most serious decision a nation can take. And in this country, we are developing a habit of rushing off to the next war as a client state of the US without a word of debate — both major parties standing shoulder to shoulder — dissenting politicians gagged by both leaders.
In a mature and secure democracy, we might want to discuss it.
No-one should condone what happened to the Americans on September 11, no-one. But the rhetoric coming out of Washington can be very disturbing. "Every nation in every region has a decision to make — you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists", says the president.
There are many nations in this world which have a deep sympathy for what has happened to the US, but are quite opposed to US foreign policy — especially in the Middle East.
On May 12, 1996, then secretary of state Madeleine Albright was asked by Lesley Stahl from the US Sixty Minutes program, what she thought of 500,000 Iraqi children dying as a result of US-sponsored sanctions against Iraq.
"It was a hard choice", Albright replied, "but, on balance, we think it was worth it." There are a lot of nations, Mr President, who are not going to be "with you" on that one.
And a little to the west, 800,000 Palestinians have lost their homes (the exact figure is subject to dispute). We would do well to remember that "a personn without a country is a person without dignity". The Israelis too have suffered dreadfully, but their PR machine is better.
When the hard-line general — now prime minister — Ariel Sharon was defence minister, hundreds of Palestinian women and children were massacred at Sabra and Shatila. He was found by the Kahan Commission to bear "personal responsibility". It matters not — rather than put pressure on the Israelis to recognise the need for a Palestinian state, the policy has accurately been described by Noam Chomsky as "what the US says goes" and there are many nations, Mr President, who are not with you on that either.
But Australia is, and in supporting the US in Afghanistan, Australians have a right to know the reasons behind a growing anger against the US. In his speech to a joint session of Congress, the president said "they hate what they see in this chamber — a democratically elected government".
It is much more complex than that and Australians have a right to know that this war is based on strategies that do not address the cause.
In fact, the public has a right to know the truth from the government — the answer to air defence units and F/A-18s.
But if you do ask, the answer will not come from those who know most about it. It will come from a political minder in the office of the defence minister. Australia has already had its first casualty of the war in Afghanistan. The Australian government has censored the truth.
The truth is that Australian air defence elements and F/A-18s are being deployed as a precaution against attacks on our ships — not by the Taliban air force — but by the Iraqis. Despite Desert Storm, where the coalition deployed 700,000 troops, the Iraqis still maintain a sizeable air force and army and the government knows this war could get a lot bigger.
We may accept that as well, but the public has a right to know what we might have signed up for. In an address to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell the other day, the president gave his strongest indication yet that this war may go well beyond Afghanistan.
Let me quote just a few words from Dick Morris, a former presidential adviser.
"On to Baghdad! Terror is like cancer; if we do not destroy it everywhere, we have not really destroyed it anywhere. Is there proof that Hussein was behind the September 11 attack or the anthrax letters? Who cares? The US has the right and moral obligation to act unilaterally, if need be, to defeat terror."
And if we take the president at his joint congress speech, Mr Morris' remarks might well stand to reason. "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there", Bush said. "It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."
Australians have a right to know, that while four out of five of us might support this commitment, until we start addressing the causes, rather than just the symptoms, it could be a very, very long war.
From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.
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