GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

Anzac Day – Lest We forget

On ANZAC Day on 25th April every year, we remember all Australian and New Zealand soldiers and civilians who were killed in all wars including those who were incarcerated and abused as prisoners of war, and those who sustained physical and psychological injuries as a result of war.

We will remember them

We remember the many millions of civilian victims of war who have been killed, injured, raped and tortured.

We remember the tens of millions of people internally displaced and forced to flee their countries of origin and seek asylum elsewhere.

We remember the trillions of dollars of vital infrastructure destroyed by war.

We also remember that war is not an accident. Wars are driven by powerful vested interests.

The ANZAC Legacy

ANZAC was born during WWI. UK Prime Minister Asquith and his government committed the UK to war with Germany. Australian governments under Prime Ministers Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes were both committed to supporting the UK. Australians began killing Germans and being killed by them in New Guinea in September 1914.

Of the 340,000 Australians who fought in WWI, 60,000 were killed and more than 100,000 others sustained permanent physical and/or psychological injuries as a result of Fisher and Hughes committing Australia to a war that served Britain’s, not Australia’s, interests.

The US under Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford embroiled Australia in their foray into Vietnam from 1962 to 1973. Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies eagerly committed Australia to this war and introduced conscription. Prime Ministers Harold Holt and John McEwan happily kept Australia involved. Australia’s withdrawal from Vietnam began under John Gorton and was completed during Gough Whitlam’s Prime Ministership.

More recently, US President George W Bush eagerly supported by Australian Prime Minister John Howard embroiled Australia in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

And now, Australia is again on the brink of being embroiled by the US in a war, this time against China. AUKUS and nuclear submarines will drag the Australian people into another disastrous war.

We must ask ourselves whose interests are served by these wars? Are the interests of the Australian people served by them? We know that many big corporations boom during war. Companies that manufacture planes, tanks, ships, weapons and ammunition benefit. Companies that mine iron ore and make steel benefit. Oil producers benefit. But how do these wars benefit Australian families and workers – people like you and me? Are we not being sacrificed?

If Australia was attacked militarily, we should defend ourselves. But if not, why should we send our young men and women to a war because the USA demands that we do, when there is no clear benefit to people of Australia?

Lest we forget.
Lest we forget the death and destruction caused by wars.

Jaimie Jeffrey

Engaging with the Pacific Nations

Statement by The Pacific Elders Voice on the 10 March 2022 includes the following:

‘Little has been done to address the impacts of climate change in the Pacific caused by their respective greenhouse gas emissions. Adequate funding for loss and damage caused by climate change needs to be addressed by Australia, China and the US in their engagement with the Pacific’.

The Elders go on to say ‘We are concerned that major powers, including the U.S, Japan and Australia, are developing strategies and policies for the ‘Indo-Pacific’ with little if any, consultation with Pacific Island countries’.

We, in the Top End of Australia, are also concerned that there is little or no genuine consultation with us on the plans to destroy our peace and chance to live in a healthy environment.

War exercises cost the earth. They are highly pollutive and cause public health problems around the world where US war incursions are happening. We are strongly of the opinion that current and future war exercises here will contribute to native species extinction in our region and major health problems among our peoples.

The current Democrat President of the United States, Joe Biden, is more intent on ‘making America great again’ than the Republican Donald Trump was. Biden’s insistence that China needs to be reined in and sanctioned is pure power-mongering. Michael Pascoe argues this succinctly here. Pascoe states that Biden’s executive orders against China are part of ‘Washington’s determination to divide the world – you’re either with the US or against it’.

David Bradbury – Peace and Film Maker Extraordinaire

Australian film-maker and peace activist, David Bradbury, has received a World Beyond War lifetime Peace Award for his commitment to stopping war and promoting everlasting peace.

In accepting this award, David has made a new documentary showing the history of his peace activism.