The Eagle's Nest: War

Showing posts with label War. Show all posts

Monday, June 02, 2008

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 Well, most of the troops will be withdrawn.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.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Christians Against Terrorism walk free and acquitted!

Free at last. Ruddock’s rotten rules couldn’t hold them. Read all about it here.Congratulations one and all. Miss Eagle is glad that your ordeal is over. God go with you into a new day!

Friday, April 27, 2007

The Alternative Anzac Commemoration

I am indebted to Dale Hess (once again) for forwarding the following material from New Zealand. If you wish to receive a pdf booklet of the commemoration, please email Miss Eagle off the sidebar.

Away from all the official ceremonies, fly-bys and flag raising, five families commemorated ANZAC Day in their own way today.

The friends and neighbours gathered to remember New Zealanders and others who sacrificed their lives for the sake of peace and freedom.

Some of the people remembered include:
Te Whiti o Rongomai

the prophet of Parihaka who refused, along with his followers, to retaliate against the violence of the colonial government bent on annexing Taranaki land for settlers.
Archibald Baxter

one of 14 pacifists in World War I who was shipped to France, sent to the frontline, tied to a pole in front of the enemy, starved, beaten and left for dead for refusing to bear arms in support of the British Empire.
Ormond Burton

a decorated World War I veteran who publicly denounced New Zealand involvement in World War II, was imprisoned with hard labour and thrown out of the Methodist Church for refusing to preach against conscription.
Archibald Barrington

the founder of the Riverside community near Motueka who toured the country opposing New Zealand participation in World War II and was arrested in Gisborne for speaking out against the war.

Ann Newlands

representative of New Zealand and a key figure in the drafting and passage of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Rod Donald

environmentalist and Member of Parliament.
Moana Cole

Catholic Worker peace activist who broke into a US Air Force base in 1991, sabotaged a B-52 bomber en route to indiscriminately bomb civilians in Iraq and was jailed for a year.
Pauline Tangiora

the kuia from Mahia who went as a human shield Iraq and has campaigned tirelessly for peace in the Pacific and Aotearoa.
Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith

the New Zealand born doctor who refused to undertake a second tour of duty in Iraq with the British RAF as he considered the occupation is illegal and was found guilty last year on five counts of disobeying orders.
After reading James K. Baxter’s poem ‘To My Father’, the families wrote their own peace poems and drew pictures.

Nine year old Hugo Robinson wrote this poem:

Peace and love
are like a flying dove;
No time for war
you just have to soar;
A tui flies
through the skies;
Open free
unlike you and me;
War, revolution
is not the solution.

Others created t-shirt slogans, pictures and designs such as:
‘Drop aid, not bombs’
‘We shall remember, we shall not cease’
‘War does not breed peace, guns do not breed security’

And another poem:

My name is peace
My name is life
My name is choice
My name is mine
My time was then
My time is now
My child, my love, my future
My name is peace.

The commemoration concluded with a rendition of ‘Maori Battalion Marches Off to War’ interspersed with ‘Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside…’

Organisers of the commemoration are expecting even larger crowds next year and are also hoping to produce a booklet of Alternative ANZACs for other groups to use.

For more information contact: Manu Caddie – ph 0274202957 / manu@ahi.co.nz

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Anzac Day 2007

To-day is Anzac Day.

This is a significant day in Australian life.

All around Australia from the Australian War Memorial (below) to every tiny country community, Australian and New Zealand war dead will be remembered.

All around the world, Australians and New Zealanders will gather.

They gather for the Dawn Service in Gallipoli in Turkey.

They gather in Flanders Fields.

The troops in Iraq and every place on earth where there are Australian and New Zealand military personnel, there will be solemnity and memorial.

After the solemnity, there will be the traditional two-up game

"Two up" game in progress troops returning from service H.M.A.T. MAHIA

Museum Victoria Collection

When Australians remember those who died in the service of their nation, on Anzac Day, at the going down of the sun in RSL Clubs across Australia, the verse below is said as a sort of prayer, a testimony of sacred intent:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Thursday, February 22, 2007

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.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

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.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

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.

Monday, February 12, 2007

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.

Monday, April 24, 2006

The Spirit of Anzac in the struggle for Peace

It is ANZAC Day tomorrow. Now Miss Eagle has seen more Anzac Days than she cares to acknowledge. She has done Dawn Services, Parades, Church Parades with the ultimate being back in 2001 when Miss Eagle and her sister did the Dawn Service at the War Memorial in Canberra.

This year I am not feeling up to any of this.

Miss Eagle's family have done their bit - Gallipoli, France, Malaya, Borneo, MacArthur's return to the Phillilpines, Coastwatching in New Guinea, Occupation Troops in Japan, Korea. As well, there is Uncle Jack - the war historian. No males went to Vietnam but Miss Eagle thought long and hard about war in this period and became a pacifist. Miss Eagle is not anti-Defence Forces and, if she was to become the Benevolent Dictator of Australia (BDA for short), there would still be an Army, Navy, and Air Force - if only to help out in cyclones and floods. As BDA, Miss Eagle supports policing type military actions such as East Timor and Cambodia and various UN Peacekeeping missions.

But Miss Eagle is feeling war-weary.

She believes in the solemnity and sacredness of Anzac Day: remembering the fallen and those who have gone before and honouring their service to the Nation. What wearies Miss Eagle is that we do not seem to learn. Australia is still going off to battles that are initiated by others and serves a foreign purpose more than Australia's own. In short, when are we going to turn the commemorative ideal around that focuses on fishing the bodies out of the water and, in addition, focus on stopping the bodies going in.

Miss Eagle does not want to politicise the Spirit of Anzac - but when can we have a national day in which we work towards Peace, highlight Peace and Peaceworkers, and seek to understand, strategise for and glorify Peace? When?

Monday, March 20, 2006

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.