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Andrew Wilkie speech at Palm Sunday Rally 2004Thanks very much for the kind words of support for me today. Unfortunately, though, we're not here to celebrate peace. We're here, I suppose, to recognise war, and in particular the continuing war in Iraq, and that every day more more people are dying, being injured and terrorised in Iraq. That is likely to continue in the foreseeable future until at least two things occur in Iraq.
The violence will continue in Iraq until all foreign troops are gone, until there is genuine self-rule for the Iraqi people. This goes to the heart of why Australian troops should be withdrawn from Iraq immediately. Quite simply, it is the presence of foreign troops which is encouraging continuing unrest in that country. It is the presence of foreign troops which is attracting the jihadists who are flooding into Iraq and detonating bombs and causing other mischief. It is the presence of foreign troops which is encouraging this guerrilla war against an army of occupation. It is the presence of foreign troops which is encouraging the instability and tension which is creating the environment for a civil war which will occur if foreign troops do not leave Iraq. In other words, there are three causes of violence in Iraq - foreign jihadists, guerrilla fighters, and civil war fighters. And at least two of the three causes of the violence are caused simply by the presence of foreign troops. For that reason alone, Australian troops should be withdrawn immediately. All of this tripe from the government, from John Howard and Alexander Downer, that we care about Iraq, it just doesn't add up. Because if we cared about Iraqis, we would not have closed our borders to them. If we really cared about Iraqis, we would not have invaded their country because of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, an explanation which has now been completely discredited. Only in the last day or two, Colin Powell has been forced to finally concede that much of the information he presented to the United Nations Security council in February last year was wrong. But yet the Australian government is looking completely isolated as it continues this nonsense that we had to invade Iraq because of these weapons of mass destruction and because of Saddam's active cooperation with Al Qaeda. Do John Howard and Alexander downer realise who foolish they sound day by day? Obviously not. If the Australian government really cared about Iraqis, it wouldn't have 'cut and run' as son as the real fighting stopped. This is a complete nonsense to say that our 850 or so military personnel in the Middle East region are there principally to help Iraqis. That is a nonsense. There's a handful of air traffic controllers who are doing a job Iraqis could do, and there's a handful in a training ream trying to reconstitute the Irqi military, which was prematurely disbanded by the US. Everyone else in Iraq is there to simply guard Australians, or to support those guarding Australians. What on earth is the relevance of that to trying to help Iraqis? There are 130,000 foreign troops in Iraq, and there are probably only so many dozen who are there actually doing something to help the Iraqis. The rest are there as an army of occupation. It is not as though there are not alternatives for looking after Australians in Iraq. Why don't we treat Iraq like we treat every other country in the world, where depending on the level of threat, the security for our diplomatic mission is achieved either by local forces, or security guards, or in the worst cases, by Australian Protective Service. If the country is in such dire straits that we need our military their to guard it, then maybe we should close the post down, just like we close the post down in any other country when the situation gets that bad. It seems to me that we are only keeping Australian troops there because John Howard is so committed to keeping the Australian flag there, flying right next to the US flag. It is also about time this government started to be less distracted by the US' perceived security problems, and more interested in Australia's security problems. Quite frankly, at the moment, this government is failing its fundamental duty to safeguard Australia and to safeguard Australians. It is so busy looking at and worrying about Iraq, it is not spending any time focusing on the United Nations and what Australia can do to mend the damage done to the United Nations because of the behaviour of the Australian and other governments leading up to the Iraq war. Maybe this government should spend less time worrying about the United States, and more time worrying about our region, and trying to mend the relationships with countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, relationships that have been terribly damaged over our participation in the Iraq war. How about our government start to worry about the so-called war on terror. We have one soldier in Afghanistan. We have a couple of terrorism analysts in the Office of National Assessments, but we have 850 people in the Middle East supporting the US' war in Iraq. Where are our priorities? It is about time we started to worry about our national security and not be so preoccupied by the US' national security. This government is selling our sovereignty to the Untied States, and it has already shifted our decision-making to Washington. When anyone speaks up, it tries to muzzle them, just as it tried to muzzle the police commissioner who bravely did try to speak up. And those who are not being muzzled are in the government's pocket. How appalled I was to hear General Peter Cosgrove weigh into the political debate a couple of weeks ago, during the pat of commissioner Keelty. What have we become in this country, when our sovereignty and our decision-making is in Washington, and when those in the public service who aren't muzzled are genuinely in the government's pocket? There's some real work to be done in this country, and it will start with getting rid of the Howard government later this year in the federal election. |
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© Walk Against the War Coalition 2003. |
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