[Nettime-bold] "Don't mention the war"

[Phil Graham <phil.graham@mailbox.uq.edu.au>]

By Brigadier Adrian D'Hage *
In Sydney Morning Herald, September 28, 2001

The US is at war.  It may not seem like it, but in amongst the grand finals 
and the Spring weather, Australia is also at war.  Four out of five 
Australians are solidly behind the Prime Minister's declaration.  In the 
meantime the signals coming out of Washington are on the one hand confusing 
and on the other unequivocal.

On Wednesday, the US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared there would 
be no marked beginning.  No massive strikes.  Then why are there no less 
than four Carrier Groups, complete with destroyer and submarine escorts 
massing in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf?  Was this designed to 
frighten the Taliban into submission?  If so, it is unlikely to 
succeed.  Or was it designed for domestic consumption?  The understandable 
need to do something.  In reality there is caution.  There has been a 
realization within the Pentagon that this nut will not be easy to 
crack.  Air strikes will not succeed unless they are directed against 
specific targets by Special Forces.  They are there already. Outstanding 
young men. Superbly trained. Silently observing.  The mountain goats will 
be grateful for that.  But if there are 300,000 fanatics participating in a 
holy Jihad and a passport to heaven, it will take much more than Special 
Forces.  And in another few weeks, the dust storms will be replaced by 
driving snow.  At least the land mines will be covered.

In contrast to his Defense Secretary, the President has been 
unequivocal.  We are part of their grief, but the rhetoric is 
disturbing.  'We will not stop until the last terrorist group of global 
reach is eliminated.'  It is simply not deliverable. And there is a danger 
of escalation into global conflict in a form the world has never 
experienced. The initial description of a 'Christian Crusade' has not 
helped.  Any war is ugly.  Religious wars are horrendous.  This campaign 
could run for years in several different countries.  Other cells may be 
identified in Egypt or the Sudan.  Without any debate, the youth of this 
country, many still in school, are signed up to fight. Four out of five 
Australians support this.

So in our haste to fight alongside Uncle Sam, we Australians need to know 
what we've signed up for.  The 'WHY' of this incredible anger toward the US 
and now potentially, Australia.  Perhaps now is not the time, yet nowhere 
in the President's speech is the slightest hint the US can see things from 
the other side of the fence.  The President has asked why do they hate us? 
'They hate what we see right here in this chamber,' he said.  'A 
democratically elected Government… they hate our freedoms.'

Wrong.

Even moderate Arab and Islamic communities are in despair over US 
policies.  The entire casualty list of lower Manhattan is replicated _every 
month_ in Iraq as a result of US sponsored sanctions.  Mainly women and 
children.  Saddam and his murderous henchmen, previously sponsored by the 
US, eat well.  And a little to the west, 800,000 Palestinians have lost 
their homes, their sons, their daughters. We would do well to remember that 
'a man without a country is a man without dignity.'

The Israeli's too have suffered dreadfully, but their PR machine is 
better.  When the hard-line general - now Prime Minister - Ariel Sharon was 
Defense Minister, hundreds of Palestinian women and children were massacred 
at Sabra and Shatilla.  He was found by the Kahan Commission to bear 
'personal responsibility.'  It matters not, the US support the hard-line. 
As a result, we now support what has accurately been described by Noam 
Chomsky as 'What the US Says Goes'.

War. I have had the great privilege of serving with the young men and women 
of the ADF and whatever the Government of the day asks - they will 
deliver.  But even an untrained eye can spot an exhausted engineer on 
Nauru.  Chiefs of Staff - take note.  There are limits to their 
loyalty.  Keep giving them impossible tasks driven by political 
stubbornness and they will vote with their feet - if they haven't 
already.  Conscription is not out of the question.  And there is an 
extraordinary irony in this frenzied construction. On the one hand we 
support the barbed wire and Howard's Armada.  On the other we strongly 
support a war that is about to produce another 2 million desperate 
Afghans.  Howard's Armada is costing $3 million a day. There will be value 
for money.

I may be a slow learner, but as a soldier of some 37 years, I can say with 
some authority that war should be an absolute last resort. It is time to 
take a step back.  It is time for a change of policy.  Engage these 
desperate communities.  Construct schools and hospitals.  Instead of 
spending 200 thousand million dollars trying to get two rockets to 
intersect in the stratosphere - when terrorists can wipe you out at 300 
feet - put it into food, training and agriculture.  Start a dialogue.  Find 
out 'why'.  But whatever you do in this surreal pre-election period - 
'don't mention the war.'

* Brigadier Adrian D'Hagé headed the planning for Defence Security for the 
Olympics.  He was awarded the Military Cross for service in Vietnam and the 
Order of Australia.  He holds degrees in Science and Theology and a 
Bookmaker's Clerk's license. He is currently writing a novel. 


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