Commendation
As a former United States Marine, Korean War era, I want to commend you on your stand against Bush's war. It is plain that he wants to rush into war before the November congressional elections so as to keep voters' minds off our many other problems.
Of course, if Iraq were a large onion grower instead of an oil producer what is happening there would not make the back pages of our newspapers.
Hopefully, Bush will listen to the nations that oppose this war because I doubt he will listen to the citizens of the United States. I believe the polls are wrong and that most Americans oppose the war.
Lawrence E. Baker
Davis, California
War referendum
Confronted with growing public disquiet on their slavish support for George Bush's new war plans, our government leaders promised a debate in parliament before any of us are sent to fight in America's war against the Iraqi people, but this isn't really good enough.
Wars are not fought by politicians, so any armed involvement by us should surely be decided by those who would have to do the fighting.
Our 1914-18 war years have given us a powerful precedent for this, when two referenda on the issue of conscription were defeated in those years, with the majority of the people questioning the validity of that awful war for us, rejecting the idea that "Britain's war is our war", and "ours not to reason why".
So, today, we must demand fully justifiable and agreed reasons before any of us are sent to kill and die anywhere at all, least of all in Iraq.
Let's never forget the horrors that ensued when we were dragged against our will into that awful American war against the poor Vietnamese people.
So, now, our involvement in Bush's manic drive to World War III must be opposed, as is happening now worldwide, and within America itself.
Let's strengthen the people's debate about it all now, not after the killing has begun, and with a nationwide referendum, so the people can decide this vital issue, and not just the politicians.
Reg Wilding
Wollongong NSW
Terrorism
Over the last 40 years, the United States has bombed Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada, Sudan, Libya, Iraq and Yugoslavia. The US has killed literally millions of human beings in small, impoverished Third World countries that were no threat to it.
On January 17, 1991, the US bombed Iraq. This military onslaught included the first-time use of 300 tonnes of depleted uranium shells plus a frightening array of other internationally banned radiological, biological, and chemical weapons. All in all, more than 140,000 tons of explosives, equivalent to seven nuclear bombs, were used against the Iraqi society in destroying its environment and infrastructure.
If we want terrorism to stop, we must stop supporting terrorism ourselves.
Nicki Booth
Grange, Qld [Abridged]
Fawning posture
I am horrified at the fawning posture the Western Australian division of the Red Cross has adopted in relation to US Middle East foreign policy by hosting Oscar De Soto, US consul-general and local Bush administration mouthpiece, at the most recent of its monthly seminar series (held September 23).
De Soto was asked to speak on the topic of "The US Response to Terrorism", a thinly veiled invitation for him to opine on the US proposal to attack Iraq.
Having served as deputy director of the Kosovo Crisis Task Force under the Clinton administration, and as political affairs officer at the US embassy in Panama, de Soto is a man well versed in the art of crafting a public relations fig leaf designed to conceal the brutal act of war.
He is a man who has also been complicit in overseeing the murderous sanctions regime against Iraq, denying school books, vaccines, and most basic antibiotics to Iraqi men, women and children. His main job now as Bush's representative in Perth appears to be justifying the coming US slaughter, through carpet bombing and the use of illegal munitions like cluster bomb units and depleted uranium shells, of Iraqi civilians.
The local division of the Red Cross, a charity respected by millions for its previously high ideals, would do well to remember the unforgivable and criminal actions of the US government in sealing off the Pakistani border for some four weeks in early November as part of its war strategy in Afghanistan, thus denying aid organisations stationed in the Peshawar valley area of Pakistan, including the Red Cross, access to the poorest regions of Afghanistan.
It is estimated by Human Rights Watch Asia that at that time some half a million Afghans were already at the point of starvation, and another two million desperate people had only enough food to last them for another 30 days.
The WA Red Cross has abandoned its hitherto proud slogans of neutrality, impartiality and respect for the sacrosanct nature of human life. Shame on the Red Cross.
Alex Whisson
Subiaco, WA
From Green Left Weekly, October 2, 2002.
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