Home at last....sort of

Back in 2003, we knew - we, the people of Australia. We knew that the US invasion of Iraq was a giant sized mistake. We knew we did not want Australian troops there on an American joy-ride. Well, a joy-ride for the Bushies - not for the families of the American war dead with whom we mourn. And we marched and we marched and we marched to tell Howard and his henchman. But to no avail.

To-day Prime Minister Rudd announced the Australian troop withdrawal. Well, most of the troops will be withdrawn. Troops to guard the embassy will remain along with a further 800 Australian troops supporting troops in Afghanistan and providing diplomatic security.

Australians will not be satisfied until all troops are out of Iraq. But this begs the question of when the USA - which has put more emphasis on poor military decisions and strategies than constructive nation building - of when the USA will go home. After all, it seldom leaves a nation once it has arrived.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

The cruelty of kidnapping and death stirs memories of ancient times and peoples

Australia sometimes seems remote not only because of its geography but from some of the most important facets of human history. This comes to mind with the reported finding of the body of the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho in Iraq.

A Wikipedia search shows this entry for the term Chaldeans. For Miss Eagle, it brings to mind biblical history, some of the oldest human history which in turn conjures up painful thoughts of the beginning of the Iraq invasion by the U.S. when the museum in Baghdad was looted and pillaged of some of the finest records and artifacts of human history.

The language spoken by Chaldeans, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, is a living link with an ancient time and an ancient people.

The Chaldeans also connect us with a very ancient Christian community - the St Thomas Christians of India. Christian tradition has it that St Thomas - you recall, dear Reader, Didymus the doubting one - travelled to India and preached the gospel there. Miss Eagle recalls when she lived in Tennant Creek where there is a group of the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's order of nuns) meeting one of the sisters who had grown up in the Syrian church in India.

So a meeting between two women in a remote Australian outback town can connect the modern 20th century with Apostolic times, Indian history, and ancient human stories embedded in the Middle East.

In Australia, we settlers - with a two hundred year memory of European settlement set within a 40,000 year Aboriginal tradition - have a lot to learn about other ancient ways of being human.

Iraq and oil: Brendan Nelson and Louise Barry

OIL PIPELINE FIRE — A U.S. Army soldier performs perimeter security during a reconnaissance patrol by the 66th Armor Battalion in an area where a recent insurgent attack took place on an Iraqi oil pipeline near Taji, Iraq, March 1, 2006. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Larson . From Defend America.


Crikey has, this afternoon, drawn our attention to a significant opinion piece by U.S. media figure, Keith Olberman. The transcript is published by Salon.com and is available here. Some of the comment took Miss Eagle's breath away - but, in her view, it is all fair comment.


When something comes to our attention, we place it in our own context of time, place, experience. This comes to attention at a time when the Australian government is handling two negative statements in regard to Australia's participation in the Iraq war:

1. Louise Barry's advertisement supporting the concept that Australian involvement in Iraq brings terrorism to our doorstep; and


2. Ministerial comments which say aloud that the Iraq war is about oil and from which the Minister for Defence, Brendan Nelson, now resiles.

Large sections of the Australian polity have always doubted the wisdom of Australia's participation in the Iraq invasion/adventure. Hundreds of thousands of Australians took to the streets. Australians viewed UN approval as crucial to an Australian presence in the Coalition of the Willing. When this approval was not forthcoming, and Australia committed to participation, the edge went from the debate against participation in the war. Australians took on the attitude that our troops are now there, let's support them.

But the Iraq adventure has taken us beyond that. Australians want their men and women home. Australians are well aware of the idiocy and corruption of the Bush/Cheney regime. Australians have been taken into the milieu of what is arguably the most corrupt and unanswerable presidency in the history of the United States of America. We are supporting a corrupt regime in the United States and self-interested inhumanity in Iraq.

Into that context, have come the words of Keith Olberman. Olberman is not a household name in Australia but his words are currently being passed around across the continent by email and blog. Miss E received an email from a friend as she began to post on this topic.

It is time to listen: it is a matter of life and death.

Aboriginal insecurity: thinking on vines and fig trees. Part 2. Mutitjulu and the invasion of 2007.

Bob Randall and his daughter, Dorothea, are bearing witness to the insecurity felt by Aboriginal people in one community, Mutitjulu. Bob is a well-known singer and, just twelve months ago, was touring major cities promoting his movie, Kanyini, as well as the art of his wife Hazel Mackinnon. Miss Eagle posted on their Melbourne visit here. This year, Kanyini was voted the best documentary at the Australian Film Festival in London. Bob outlines, as so many communities do, the requests for assistance which have been made to the Federal Government and how those requests have been met with silence and neglect.

John Howard has now discovered concern for Aborigines and, in particular, the abuse of Aboriginal children. John Howard has been a deny-er of Aboriginal abuse - until, it would seem, now. He denied that any abuse of Aboriginal children or people occurred in our lifetime and that, because it did not occur in our lifetime, there was no need to apologise, to say "Sorry".

Now, unless we have all gone Tardis travelling, hasn't the abuse to which he refers occurred in living memory - in the lifetime of present generations? And hasn't he been on watch (well, asleep at the wheel) for eleven years of that period?

Does John Howard not understand that the people of Australia have watched him, listened to him, and remembered every word and inaction? Now that he has discovered Aborigines (well, we hope he has) it all has to be a state of emergency and frenetic activity - like George Bush and the Coalition of the Willing (including Australia under John Howard) invading Iraq.

You may recall, dear Reader, that in Baghdad the antiquities of humanity were looted. Hospital equipment was looted. All without meaningful intervention by the invaders. Could this possibly be a parable/prophecy/metaphor for what might happen in this speedy and hastily put together invasion of Aboriginal communities - which also includes, once more with feeling, the stealing of Aboriginal land without compensation?

In the weeks ahead, what will be lost in this state of emergency? What will be trampled on and looted in the attempt to achieve an outcome as unrealistic as Bush and his neo-cons?

Howard chose not to listen to hundreds of thousands of Australians taking to the streets to voice their opposition to Australian entry into Iraq. Howard has chosen not to listen to Aboriginal people and people working side by side with them for a better life. Howard turned his back on them - and they reciprocated by turning their backs on him.

Howard is sending in the troops, police, and professionals. Funding is not clear. Delegation is not clear. Enforcement under which set of laws is not clear. Howard is after a fix by fiat. And a short term fix at that. Except for the land grab, there is nothing to indicate that Howard, Brough, et al are there for the long haul; nothing to indicate that they will stand shoulder to shoulder with Aboriginal leadership across Australia to bring lasting and intergenerational change. One Noel Pearson does not an economic revolution make.

Postscript

7.15pm

ABC TV News to-night carried a report that women at Mutitjulu had left the community and gone to the sandhills. The report did not state how many women went or how many women remained at the community. It did not state whether the women had taken their children with them. People at Mutitjulu are a long way from fig trees and vines and it sounds like they are far from security too.

7.30pm

The ABC's 7.30 Report provides a huge dose of reality into Howard's so-called State of Emergency in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. It has shown a National Press Club address by Mick Dodson in 2002 spelling out (well, not quite everything - the most horrifying was omitted by a clearly emotional Dodson) child abuse in Aboriginal communities. Don't you listen, John Howard. Don't you read, John Howard. You certainly did not speak out...until now. Have you been deaf, blind, and mute?

Howard the Sycophant talks about Honour!!!

In the middle of all his political woes, Howard is digging Australia further into the falsity of Coaliting of the Willing aspirations for Iraq. Honour, he says.

Bah, humbug, Howard! How dare you wrap up the mountainous death toll of Iraqis in what you chose to call honour. There has been little honour in the defence of US policy by the Australian government.

You, John Howard, have taken Australia and Australians into a war which is not in their national interests. You, John Howard, have taken Australians into a lock step position on flawed and failed US foreign policy in relation to Israel and the Middle East.

Australians did not want participation in the war in Iraq without UN involvement. They do not want it to-day. This was clear in polls and the hundreds of thousands of Australians who voted with their feet in peace marches.

You, John Howard, ignored your own people. You took the side of the US against us and our best interests. You, John Howard, are a war monger. Not a peace maker.

Peace is not in you, John Howard.

You, John Howard, do well as a sycophant.

You, John Howard, cannot and will not make peace.

John Howard's Comedy: no sense of timing

One thing a comic needs is a good sense of timing.

Here a list of examples are given of a good sense of timing.

Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail

� The African/European Swallow debate at the beginning is a great use of pauses.

Dennis Miller

� He bulls through the punchlines quickly and effectively.

Noises Off

� The entire play/movie (especially the middle section; excellent physical use of timing!)
Back to the Future

� Michael J. Fox uses timing brilliantly by pausing before his line to create wonderful facial expressions, conveying a wealth of emotion.

The comedy of life isn't really much different. Great statesmen give every appearance of a good sense of timing. Churchill and the war against the Nazis; Robert Menzies and post-war prosperity.

Shakespeare said it all in Julius Cæsar. Act iv. Sc. 3:

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

Until 1996, John Howard seemed to have misjudged the tide. Ten years as Prime Minister of Australia has given every appearance that Howard has judged the tide very well. Now, in 2007, John Howard's judgment of tides has ebbed indeed.

Climate change denial by Howard has seen him overtaken by the electorate and he is now in catch up mode. He is under constant pressure from an increasingly vocal electorate to bring David Hicks home to Australia from Guantanamo Bay. Now, Tony Blair has overtaken him in his surprise announcement to bring British troops home from Iraq.

POOR SENSE OF TIMING, JOHN.

Does Bush know what he's talking about....

Ignorance is bliss?

....because Miss Eagle sure doesn't.

Miss Eagle doesn't talk about Bush much. Why bother? Coming home from work to-day I heard a sound clip from a White House press conference. The gist of the thing was about weapons in Iraq. Miss Eagle picked up that much. And Dubya was talking about IUDs. That's cute, Miss E thought to herself. Intra-Uterine Devices as weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! Ooo-wah!

In case no one has guessed yet, Miss Eagle is curious. She is the original curiosity killed the cat but information brought it back girl. So home to the 'puter to check it out. So she went to the White House site and came up with the press conference. Now Miss E's hearing might not have been too good but then Miss E doesn't think too much of Dubya's diction - considering he is a graduate of an Ivy League university. Turns out that Dubya was talking about IEDs.

Now Miss Eagle is not an expert on armaments and - she is a committed peace lover - has no ambition to become one. Therefore she hadn't a clue about IEDs. So she did what any good blogger does, she Googled it: with this result. So good so far or so far so good.

She then decided to explore the other conundrum from the Press Conference. What on earth is a Qud. This was a bit trickier. Google Quds and you will see what Miss E means. However, she thinks this might be the critter. Anyway, she thinks it has a lot to do with this lot.

Miss Eagle has now come to the conclusion that there are two types of armaments. There are peaceful, democratic armaments (like the ones that the USA and the coalitions forces employ) and there are destructive armaments (like the ones that Iran is alleged to have deployed). Mmmmmm......Miss Eagle thinks.

Now perhaps Miss Eagle could be convinced that Dubya knows what he is talking about if........

• She didn't remember all that guff about peace, democracy, and regime change while watching a handful of men (definitely no women) being a choreographed support group for the pulling down of a Saddam Hussein statue.


• She didn't remember the looting of hospitals in Baghdad without let or hindrance from the United States armed forces.


• She didn't remember the looting of the artifacts and antiquities of the earliest years of human civilisation without intervention by the United States armed forces.


• She didn't remember how US corruption, bumbling, self-interest, and military and political self-congratulation have set up post-Saddam Iraq to fail.

Nah! Dubya hasn't a clue about that of which he speaks.

Democratic Party the party of terrorism: the fall-out

"I would prefer that Mr Howard stay out of our domestic politics and we will stay out of his domestic politics," said Texas senator John Cornyn, a strong supporter of the war and of President George Bush.

Spot on Senator. Fortunately, it appears the current US Ambassador wants to stay out of Australia's domestic politics too. That was something that could not always be said of the previous US Ambassador.

As for John Howard, he is his usual dogged self maintaining - against all opinion - that he had to say what he said because it was right. John is never wrong. Hundreds of thousands of Australia marched against the Iraq war. Opinion polls did not approve of the Iraq invasion without UN approval and involvement. And the electorate always doubted the weapons of mass destruction farrago of lies and spin. But who was right in all this? Never the electorate - in spite of its vindication by events. No. John Howard is always right even when he is wrong.

Try humility instead of invincibility, Prime Minister.

Chicks and chutzpah

Well, it was taking the long way, but the sisterhood came out on the other side: every chick has her day.

Yeah, things are looking up for the Dixie Chicks: a great night at the Grammys and United States public opinion on the Iraq War is catching up to them.

Don't ya just love natural justice:

Though the mills of God grind slowly,
Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting,
With exactness grinds he all.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Keep it up Kevvie: keep the 'counting coming

Well, hasn't to-night's news been interesting! Those with a sense of social democratic history will want a copy of Kevvie's speech - with all its references to US Democrat Presidents. Miss Eagle was particularly taken with the commentary on the 7pm ABC Television News in Melbourne that said Howard was "called to account". Haven't found a direct reference to link to for this comment - but Miss Eagle asserts the accuracy of her hearing in this matter.

Readers of this blog will know how interested Miss Eagle is in the calling to account of John Howard: or, as she cares to put the situation, having "the chickens come home to roost". There is a strong odour of roosting chickens in the air. Keep it up Kevvie. Way to go.

Rumsfield goes and Gates opens

Miss Eagle returns from a battle with ill health rejoicing. The Democrats have won the day in the USA and this morning the resignation of Donald Rumsfield is announced. Rumsfield resigns from the war. In fact, he survives the Iraq War when he has sent so many young men and women to the war only to see them come home in body bags. Rumsfield will undoubtedly see rewards for what George W Bush describes as his patriotism. So after the war, after the killing, after the destruction, Rumsfield will undoubtedly be found a sinecure. Probably the best that can be hoped is that he never enters the halls of governance and government again.

The CIA - remember that in George Bush Sr and George W Bush we have had the CIA constituency ruling the world - has another body in the halls of power with the appointment of Robert Gates to succeed Rumsfield at Defence. Bob Gates headed up the CIA under Bush Sr. The military will be pleased!

Let's focus on the positives.

George W Bush's face is going to do a lot of about-ing in the next two years.

Prophetic Witness for Peace

Readers of this blog will know that Miss Ealge has blogged in support of the Christian Peacemakers Team held captive in Iraq. One was found dead a fortnight ago. Yesterday the remaining three were released. Miss Eagle does not want to say too much but would refer you to the Free the Captives site and below is the official statement from Christian Peacemakers Teams which says it all:

Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad. Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community. Together we have endured uncertainty, hope, fear, grief and now joy during the four months since they were abducted in Baghdad.

We rejoice in the return of Harmeet Sooden. He has been willing to put his life on the line to promote justice in Iraq and Palestine as a young man newly committed to active peacemaking.

We rejoice in the return of Jim Loney. He has cared for the marginalized and oppressed since childhood, and his gentle, passionate spirit has been an inspiration to people near and far.

We rejoice in the return of Norman Kember. He is a faithful man, an elder and mentor to many in his 50 years of peacemaking, a man prepared to pay the cost.

We remember with tears Tom Fox, whose body was found in Baghdad on March 9, 2006, after three months of captivity with his fellow peacemakers. We had longed for the day when all four men would be released together. Our gladness today is made bittersweet by the fact that Tom is not alive to join in the celebration. However, we are confident that his spirit is very much present in each reunion.

Harmeet, Jim and Norman and Tom were in Iraq to learn of the struggles facing the people in that country. They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict. They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end.

Today, in the face of this joyful news, our faith compels us to love our enemies even when they have committed acts which caused great hardship to our friends and sorrow to their families. In the spirit of the prophetic nonviolence that motivated Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom to go to Iraq, we refuse to yield to a spirit of vengeance. We give thanks for the compassionate God who granted our friends courage and who sustained theirspirits over the past months. We pray for strength and courage for ourselves so that, together, we can continue the nonviolent struggle for justice and peace.

Throughout these difficult months, we have been heartened by messages of concern for our four colleagues from all over the world. We have been especially moved by the gracious outpouring of support from Muslim brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. That support continues to come to us day after day. We pray that Christians throughout the world will, in the same spirit, call for justice and for respect for the human rights of the thousands of Iraqis who are being detained illegally by the U.S. and British forces occupying Iraq.

During these past months, we have tasted of the pain that has been the daily bread of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Why have our loved ones been taken? Where are they being held? Under what conditions? How are they? Will they be released? When?

With Tom’s death, we felt the grief of losing a beloved friend. Today, we rejoice in the release of our friends Harmeet, Jim and Norman. We continue to pray for a swift and joyful homecoming for the many Iraqis and internationals who long to be reunited with their families. We renew our commitment to work for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq as a way to continue the witness of Tom Fox. We trust in God’s compassionate love to show us the way.

Living through the many emotions of this day, we remain committed to the words of Jim Loney, who wrote:

"With God’s abiding kindness,
we will love even our enemies.
With the love of Christ,
we will resist all evil.
With God’s unending faithfulness,
we will work to build the beloved
community."

Iraq - Bring the troops home

Bring Australian troops home now

Australians have been consistent in their opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets across Australia to express their opposition. Polls showed that Australians would only consider armed intervention in Iraq under UN supervision. When Australia eventually became part of the "Coalition of the Willing" and went to Iraq anyway, opposition in the polls diminished. This was more an admission of a fait accompli than wholehearted support of Australia's participation in the American hegemony and the Iraq War. Increasingly, Australians are expressing their opposition to the Iraq War in opinion polls and saying that they want Australian troops brought home.

There are times when the people have a mortgage on wisdom, not their government. Australians proved this in the matter of East Timor when, over 25 years in the face of Labor and Liberal Governments' support of the Indonesian takeover of East Timor, they expressed opposition to the Indonesian takeover of Timor Leste and provided decisive support, finally, for the Australian Government to take armed police/military action to halt the bloodshed caused by the Indonesian military and their bloodthirsty Timorese allies. Australians live in a democracy. Miss Eagle does not believe that Australians are prepared to sacrifice everything to the US-Australian relationship. Perhaps the opinion polls should be including questions based on that proposition.

AWB and bribes

I haven't posted on the AWB bribery scandal before. It is big, it is complex, it is unfolding. It seems wise to wait - particularly when one hopes that a Government who has turned a blind eye might actually get targetted with some convincing evidence. However, that retired partygoer, Redness, at I'm Over It has drawn my attention to this ad. Get Up! Go see for yourself.

Iraq War - 3rd Anniversary Rally & March - Melbourne - Marching for peace and justice

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Iraq War - 3rd Anniversary Rally & March - Melbourne - Badges of protest

Iraq War - 3rd Anniversary Rally & March - Melbourne - Get the message?

Iraq War - 3rd Anniversary Rally & March - Melbourne - Wearing their promos

Iraq War - 3rd Anniversary Rally & March - Melbourne - Promoting their wares

Iraq War - 3rd Anniversary Rally & March - Melbourne - Flags