The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, December 4, 2002. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request.
****************************** Government aggression outrages Australia's neighbours The Howard Government's support for pre-emptive strike action has outraged Australia's neighbours. Last week Defence Minister Senator Robert Hill declared that the UN Charter should define such action as a self-defence right "better suited to contemporary realities". This week Prime Minister Howard stated that any national leader should regard pre-emptive action as a legitimate responsibility. by Peter Mac Hill declared ".when an armed attack against a state is imminent that state is not compelled to wait until the first blow has been struck. "But what action can a state legitimately take when that attack is to be launched by a non-state actor, in a non-conventional manner, operating from bases in disparate parts of the world?" Apparently the Minister's answer is hit any country you like. On Monday, the Philippines Minister for Defence joined spokesmen for the governments of Indonesia and other Asian nations in expressing horror at the Australian Government's stand, and said he was amazed that any national leader could make such statements. ALP shadow Defence Minister Chris Ellison commented angrily that "Robert Hill suggests international law allows countries to determine for themselves whether a particular suite of circumstances justifies a pre-emptive military attack. "The Minister is advocating a doctrine that allows each country to conduct military strikes in the name of self-defence, even though the Charter was intended to provide a means of resolving conflicts peacefully." The Australian Government has cynically used the New York and Bali terrorist attacks to resurrect the "forward defence" policy which the Menzies Government used to justify Australia's disastrous involvement in the hideous Vietnam War. Senator Hill said that intelligence warnings of an imminent terrorist attack justify military action against terrorists active in a country other than their own. If Hill's argument were taken seriously, then it could be argued that any country (and there are many) which perceives itself as threatened by the US and its allies would be justified in attacking them first. For example, Iraq which has been subjected to a continuing barrage of threats since the S11 attack (not to mention the actual blockade of civilian aid and the continuing air attacks on its territory) would, using the same argument, be justified in launching attacks on the United States, Britain and Australia. For that matter the terrorists have also been accused of operating in the Philippines, Singapore, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Egypt and others. All these countries have been implicitly threatened by the statements of Bush, Blair and Howard, and as a result would now be justified in initiating "pre-emptive strike" action against the US, Britain and Australia. Of course, that is not what is intended by Hill's statement. The pre-emptive strike policy is intended to apply in one direction, with only the rich and powerful Western nations having the "right" to take first strike action against the poorer nations or "failed states". It's the same old savage policy of imperial domination, taken out, dusted off and dressed up in a sanctimonious new "anti-terrorist" garb. And it's even more dangerous now than it was in the past. J **************************************************************************** -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink