The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of
the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, February
12th, 2003.
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Editorial: Anti-Bush's war is not anti-Americanism
Last week's episode in which the US Ambassador, Mr Schieffer, took the
Labor Party to task for allegedly promoting anti-Americanism is not only
an interference in Australia's domestic affairs but shows that the
United States accepts nothing less than complete subservience from other
countries.
If the US is prepared to haul the ALP over the coals, what will it do to
other states that have a much more independent and better position than
does Australia?
The offensive remarks of the US Ambassador may have been encouraged by
several columnists in the Sydney Morning Herald such as Gerard Henderson
who attempted last week to almost criminalise anyone who disagrees with
the US war against Iraq.
There is another America - the many who oppose war and will be on the
streets this coming weekend in their tens of thousands. One report
anticipates that as many as one million will march against war in New
York. There is the America of working people who are the victims of the
corporations and who have been thrown out of work and swindled out of
their entitlements just as many have been in Australia.
It is hardly fair for Mr Schieffer to criticise the Labor Party
leadership when it continues to staunchly support the US alliance as the
main pillar of its foreign policy. Furthermore, the Labor Party's
leadership does not oppose war on Iraq on principle and what is more, it
rushed to accept every word uttered by Colin Powell when speaking to the
UN Security Council last week.
Even a child could see that Powell's so-called evidence is nothing more
than a concoction of lies and innuendo, all designed to justify a US war
and to stampede the other members of the UN Security Council into voting
for war or at least abstaining - which, in the circumstances, also
amounts to a vote for war.
Opposition to Bush's war is not anti-Americanism but rejection of the
America of Bush, Rumsfeld, and the oil corporations, the America of
aggression and standover.
Mr Schiefer has shown what the US alliance is all about in practice -
mindless support for whatever the US leaders decide to do in their
interests. The US alliance does not protect Australia as has been
trumpeted. Being tied to American coat tails however, has dragged
Australia into war in Korea and Vietnam, into the 1991 Gulf War and now,
it seems, into a second war in the Middle East.
So long as Australia remains encumbered with the US alliance it will be
impossible to develop the friendships needed to maintain Australia's
real interests in the Asia-Pacific region. There are already indications
that Australia is becoming isolated from Asian countries as they build
their economies and assert their independence from their former colonial
masters. Participation in a war against Iraq will intensify this process.
It is not simply the grovelling attitude of John Howard personally that
is at fault. It is the policy of tying Australia's foreign policy to the
US alliance that inevitably puts Australia at odds with Asia and the
Pacific and is seen to make Australia subservient to American dictation.
Mr Schieffer's remarks are a clear indication of how the US sees its
relationship with Australia and other countries. Do as we say, or else.
The massive opposition to Bush's war plans is an extremely healthy sign
that the Australian people care about peace and our independence and are
not going to be mindlessly stampeded into a war that has no
justification. War against Iraq and other countries will ultimately
bring down on the heads of the Australian people much suffering as well
as being a calamity for the people of many other countries.
Now is a time of decision that could determine the way ahead for
generations - either America's war without end or the path towards peace
in which the call of the Charter of the United Nations to eliminate the
war option is upheld.
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