The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 2nd, 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.
****************************** Editorial: Crucial test, crucial time The Australian Government is busy re-writing its strategic military plans along the lines laid down by the US in its National Security Strategy document issued by Bush on September 17. It is a chilling document of militarization and war throughout the world using the phony "war against terrorism" as the justification. Defence Minister Robert Hill foreshadowed the Government's thinking in a speech last week. Its direction is indicated by Hill's remark that "the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) will continue to find themselves turning up in unexpected places far from our shores". Bush's statement says: ". the US will require bases and stations within and beyond Western Europe and Northeast Asia, as well as temporary access arrangements for the long-distance deployment of US forces." To look after the global interests of the transnational corporations these governments require "transnational security", to use Robert Hill's phrase. Readers may be astounded to learn that Australian military forces are not only in East Timor, Afghanistan and in the Gulf but are now to be found in Kyrgyzstan and Diego Garcia. (Diego Garcia is an island strategically based in the Indian Ocean which is used by Britain and the US as a base for communications, and the refuelling and resupplying of ships and aircraft. It could be used to control traffic through the Suez and launching or supporting an attack on Iraq.) Other countries in which Australian military forces are to be found include PNG, Bougainville, Indonesia (obvious from issues raised by Senator Faulkner last week in the Senate about the sinking of the refugee boat SIEV-X), Malaysia and in several other countries under the UN "peacekeeping" flag. They are also almost certainly operating in Iraq at the present time. In respect to Indonesia, the Australian Government is attempting to re-establish working relations with the Indonesian Army (the TNI). Despite the role of the TNI in maintaining in power the Suharto dictatorship, Robert Hill asserted that the "TNI will remain a fundamentally important institution in Indonesia. Its handling of difficult internal security problems across the archipelago will have a crucial bearing on stability". The reality is however, that elements in the TNI are not the solution to but the cause of instability as their forces manoeuvre to re-establish its dictatorship over Indonesian politics. Underlying the Government's review of "defence" strategy is the intention to act as the deputy sheriff of the US as it pursues its objective of world domination and, for this purpose, to join with the US in its various military adventures. Referring to the "war on terrorism" Hill says that "this is a conflict more likely to be fought out well beyond Australian shores". The Government's strategy has no use for the United Nations. It does not even rate a mention in Robert Hill's review. The recent criticisms of the Government's policies by former political leaders and some retired Army and Navy commanders express fundamental disagreement with the whole strategic approach that the Government is attempting to foist on the people of Australia and on Australia's military forces. Responsible military commanders are concerned that Australian forces under their command should not be put into impossible and dangerous situations merely on the demand of the US. The Government's strategy also leads inexorably to the destruction of the United Nations and its replacement by US unilateralism and pre-emptive strikes. This option has been clearly spelt out by Bush in his insistence that if the UN does not act the US will. This is not a new policy. The US has for a long time ignored those UN decisions with which it disagrees. The many UN decisions relating to Israeli aggression are just one example. The refusal of the US to support the creation of the International Court of Justice is another. The people of Australia and other countries face a crucial test. EITHER the rule of law, collective decisions by the UN and the various covenants of the UN are to be abided by OR its replacement by US unilateralism backed up by its military power, war, occupation, bribery, threats, assassinations and the whole armoury of US coercion in the sole interests of the United States. ******************************************************* -- -- 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