I am writing to support the Governor of Tasmania Peter Underwood and the remarks he made on Anzac Day ( Read here ).
Anzac Day is the day when Australians remember those Australians who died or who were permanently disabled by war.
Tens of thousands of Australians have been killed or permanently disabled in wars.
I would have thought that anybody in their right mind would regard that as undesirable ( Andrew Bolt does … Herald Sun, April 26, 2014: Tasmanian Governor Peter Underwood enters hall of shame over Anzac Day speech ).
Tens of millions of people were killed or permanently disabled by the First World War and the Second World War.
Millions have been killed and disabled by many wars since then.
Again I would have thought it is self-evident that is a disaster.
Therefore wars are disasters.
And what sane person really wishes to perpetuate disasters.
It is just sensible to prevent war and prolong peace.
The time we remember those who have died and suffered because of wars, is the appropriate time to talk about peace and explore ways of preventing war.
After the disaster of the First World War most nations have tried to preserve peace and set up the League of Nations.
That organisation failed and after the disaster of the Second World War, the United Nations was formed which has helped to prevent a third world war and had some success in reducing the incidence and severity of war.
And while the United Nations has not been totally successful (mainly because of great power rivalry) and on the whole is not perfect, that is not a reason to abandon it and have more wars.
So it seems to me that the Governor’s comments were perfectly sensible and quite proper and I cannot understand why anybody would criticise him for advocating peace.
Surely the only people who would criticise an advocate of peace are those who support war.
You have to be especially psychopathic to want to cause the deaths of millions of people and advocate of the deaths of tens and millions of people through wars.
That leads one to believe that those who have criticised the Governor wish to glorify war and enjoy the prospect of killing and disabling millions of people.
This leads one to consider the major wars in which Australia has been involved.
The Second World War could be regarded as a war against fascism. Clearly Australia was in danger of being invaded by Japan and the battles on the Kokoda Trail and at Milne Bay were battles to prevent a Japanese invasion of Australia.
Clearly Australia’s involvement was totally justified.
The First World War is more problematic.
In my opinion it is a war caused by imperialism; that is the belief that one nation has the right to invade and annex the territory of another nation or ethnic group.
It was a war between the Austrian, Turkish and the nascent German empire against the Russian, French and British Empire.
There was no threat of Australia being invaded.
As long as the British navy controlled the seas Australia had no great interest in who won or lost that war.
The Australians who lost their lives were fighting in the interest of the British ruling class.
Certainly neither the British people nor the German people wanted to go to war and kill each other.
That is shown by the fact that at Christmas 1914 the British and German troops met in no man’s land and tried to have a Christmas party.
The officers of both Britain and Germany shot a lot of their own men to make sure that their soldiers would keep on killing each other for many years to come.
After the failure of the Nivelle Offensive 50 divisions of a French army refused to obey orders on 3 May 1917.
The mutiny was put down by General Petain with great loss of life.
Petain collaborated with the Nazis in the Second World War and after the war was sentenced to death as a war criminal but because of his advanced age his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
One of the tragedies of the twentieth century was the failure of the Labor movement to persuade the people of Britain and Germany that they had more in common with each other than with their ruling classes.
They were the ones that went to war and created the total disaster of the First World War.
I cannot think of anything good that came out of it.
And the treatment of Germany after the war created the condition which enabled the rise of Nazism and the Second World War.
The Korean wars were approved by the United Nations and Australia’s involvement was probably justified.
But the Vietnam war was illegal and Australia’s involvement was not justified and cost 2 million lives.
The second Iraq war was illegal and excuses for waging it were lies. If the people who died (mainly women and children) because of American sanctions and included in the count; about 2 million lives were lost.
The American sanctions on Iraq prevented them from getting antibiotics and anti-cancer medication and a lot of other drugs.
I saw on TV Madeleine Albright the Secretary for State in the Clinton administration agree that at that stage the sanctions caused 500,000 deaths and this was before the fighting started in the second Iraq war.
She thought causing deaths of 500,000 people was justified to support America’s dominance.
In my calculations that makes her 18,518.518 times more destructive than Martin Bryant.
In my opinion she is a bigger psychopath, probably a much bigger psychopath.
It would be very wise not to listen to right wing politicians who want to go to war; they are normally preserving their privileges and the privileges of their friends and allies who have no concern for the lives of ordinary people.
The most recent war Australia was involved in was the war in Afghanistan.
That episode illustrates the ruthless destructiveness of the CIA.
When a government that was sympathetic to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) came to power in Kabul the CIA sought to undermine it by financing and arming Tajiq warlords and Uzbek warlords in northern Afghanistan.
But the most violent and vicious and fanatical opponents of the Kabul regime were the extremist Muslim Pashtun ethnic group in southern Afghanistan and across the border in northern Pakistan.
Thus the Taliban was born.
It was nurtured by the CIA and armed and equipped and financed by them.
Being fanatical islamists they have of course turned on the Americans who then went to war to destroy their own creation.
And now the Australian troops are coming home along with the Americans.
The best result for Afghanistan is if its various ethnic groups can resume the uneasy truce that prevailed before the Russians got involved.
One suspects the Afghanistan war was an exercise in blood soaked futility.
Notably Australia were under no risk of invasion by the Taliban.
It is doubtful whether Australia had any interest in being in the Afghanistan war.
Anyone who knows a bit of history knows that the Pashtun tribes are very resentful of any attempt to control them and they have seen off the Russian empire, the British empire, the Soviets and now the Americans.
Peshawar was the furthest reach of the British Empire in North West India.
History seems bound to repeat itself. People keep on trying to invade the Pashtun tribal areas and keep on losing, it all seems tragic and stupid and silly.
I am disappointed that Australia seems unable to mature as a nation and stand up on its own two feet and become independent.
Our right wing politicians insisted we be a client state of the British empire and when it came to the Second World War Churchill refused to release troops to defend Australia and the British did not succeed in doing anything to prevent the Japanese invading Australia, Australia was able to stop the Japanese advance across Papua New Guinea themselves but of course the American victories in the Coral Sea and at the Midway destroyed Japanese naval power and ensured that Australia was under no threat.
But Australia had proved itself capable of defending its own interests successfully in New Guinea. Now right wing politicians insist we must be a client state of the Americans.
The British Empire was slowly dying after the First World War and the American empire seems to be slowly dying.
Not only did our right wing politicians insisted we be a client state but even insisted that we join a dying empire.
It is not in the Australian interests to be a client state of some empire, we are much better off looking after ourselves and looking after our own interests, at the present time no nation other than the Americans have the navy capable of making an amphibious invasion of Australia, so we have no need to be terrified and huddle against some bigger nation and become their client.
