BY MARCEL CAMERON
BRISBANE — "Our bombs and missiles will be as effective [in fighting terrorism] as fighting fire with kerosene", retired brigadier Adrian D'Hage told a packed Brisbane Town Hall, filled with 250 people for a November 27 "Public Meeting for Peace".
D'Hage, who was awarded a military cross for service in Vietnam, has become an outspoken critic of Australian involvement in the war in Afghanistan and a thorn in the side of the Howard government.
He questioned why the Australian government had sent part of the 16th airborne regiment to supposedly neutralise the Taliban air force when the Taliban air defences had already been reduced "to a heap of twisted metal" in the first days of the US bombing campaign. D'Hage speculated that the real reason was that Iraq, which maintains a significant air force, was likely to be the next target for US-led bombing raids.
"With the major parties standing shoulder to shoulder" in support of the war on Afghanistan, dissenting politicians were being gagged, he told the meeting, organised by the Rally for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament.
"The government has been censoring the truth. You will only be told what the government want you to hear", said D'Hage.
Dr Sue Wareham, president of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War (Australia), delivered a stinging and passionate speech, condemning George Bush's refusal to rule out the use of unconventional (including nuclear) weapons: "The world's most powerful nation threatens to use the most terrifying weapons ever created in the war against terror'.
Wareham also bitterly denounced the racism of the war, saying "The life of a child in Afghanistan is worth less than the life of a child in Australia. This war has been described as racist. I believe this is correct."
Ross Daniels, a lecturer in social science at the Queensland University of Technology, also condemned US foreign policy, recalling that "the history of US intervention in Latin America is a history of terror".
Activists from the Network Opposing War and Racism (NOWAR) handed out leaflets and posters advertising the December 9 rally and march for peace organised by NOWAR. The rally will demand "Stop the bombing [of Afghanistan]" and "Bring the troops home now".
From Green Left Weekly, December 5, 2001.
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