The following letter from Australian anti-war and Latin
American solidarity activist Joan Coxsedge--who is also a former member of the
Victoria state parliament--originally appeared in an Australian-Cuban
solidarity group's newsletter.
“May 28, 2017
“Dear Comrades,
“And yes, our hearts ached when we saw the latest outrage
against powerless young working-class kids in Manchester just out at a concert
enjoying themselves. These are wicked times where wicked people commit wicked
acts, but In all the understandable noise and fury truth is struggling to be
heard with why’s and how’s drowned out.
“ ‘Iraq’ is whispered, when it should be shouted from the
rooftops. There were no suicide bombers in Iraq until Blair and Bush and Howard
invaded. Blair was warned by the Joint Intelligence Committee before the
invasion that ‘by far the greatest terrorist threat to the UK would be
heightened by military action against Iraq’. This was backed up by a secret CIA
report. ‘Before the invasion’, it said, ‘Iraq exported no terrorist threat to
its neighbors because Saddam Hussein was ‘implacably hostile to alQaida’.
“In their 1991 illegal, unprovoked, blood-soaked Gulf war,
‘allied’ forces left more than 200,000 Iraqis dead and injured, and their
infrastructure in ‘an apocalyptic state’. Tracts of southern Iraq were
contaminated with depleted uranium and cluster bombs.
“The later sanctions, designed and promoted by zealots in
Washington and Whitehall, were genocidal. After ordering the destruction of
Iraq’s water and sewerage plants to spread infectious diseases, the brutal
sanctions made it impossible for them to be repaired. Some half-a-million
infants died (‘worth it,' said then Sec. of State Madeline Albright), but
barely reported in the West.
“America’s targeting of civilians, its illegal rewriting of
laws and theft of resources through privatization, the everyday torture and
humiliation of ordinary people and failure to protect Iraqi’s great
archaeological and cultural heritage has been the catalyst. Throughout the
Muslim world, the bitterness was palpable, a contagion that has spread.
“As a killer on an industrial scale, Christianity leaves
Islam for dead. It must be said again and again and understood - that the West
cannot continue to invade, occupy and subvert Muslim and Arab nations and not
expect consequences, especially when it means the slaughter of its own people.
It’s called ‘blowback’.
The announcement that Trump has sealed an outrageous arms
deal with Saudi Arabia worth $110 billion immediately and $350 billion over 10
years was all it took for western leaders to look the other way when it came to
Saudi’s public beheadings, crucifixions, eye gouging and other barbarisms meted
out in the Kingdom on a regular basis, indistinguishable from the religious
extremists and fanatics in Syria.
“By the time Trump reached the bit in his speech threatening
those ‘choosing the path of terror’, he sounded like a speech-writer for Isis.
Predictably, the fawning, corrupt rulers of the Muslim world clapped away when
the loopy president had finished speaking. For fueling war between Shia and
Sunni?
“Within minutes of landing at Tel Aviv Airport (part of
whose runways lies on land legally owned by Palestinian Arabs) Trump was
churning out America’s ongoing hatred of Iran, about Iran’s ‘terror plots’ and
its continuing desire to make a nuclear bomb. He seemed unaware that Iran has
just re-elected a president who had signed the nuclear agreement two years ago,
substantially reducing any threat to Israel or anyone else.
“But listening to Trump’s Twitterworld garbage someone from
outer space would believe that Iran was the creator of Isis and that Israel was
bombing the violent cultists, when the reverse is true. Landgrabbing Israel was
bombing the shit out of the Iranians and Syrians and had not once bombed Isis.
“Chris Hedges describes the awful descent of the US
political system which is affecting all capitalist countries, with special
resonance for Australia. ‘The crisis we face today is the result of a four decade
long corporate coup that has rendered the citizen impotent, left us without any
authentic democratic institutions and allowed corporate and military power to
become omnipotent. This crisis has spawned a corrupt electoral system of legalized
bribery…if we do not overthrow the neoliberal corporate forces that have
destroyed our democracy we will continue to vomit up more monstrosities as
dangerous as Donald Trump…it began with the creation of corporate-funded
foundations and organizations that took control of the press, the courts, the
universities, scientific research and the two major political parties…it began
when big money was employed by political operatives to create negative
political advertisements and false narratives to deceive the public, turning
political debate into burlesque…unless we dismantle the corporate state, we are
doomed’.
“We’ve seen what 40 years of economic ‘reforms’ have done
here with privatization of everything that moves, ferocious anti-unionism, jobs
moved offshore and increase in unstable part-time work, gross wage disparity,
decline of manufacture while lousy unproductive industries such as
welfare-to-work schemes prosper, and Ignoring climate change.
“Cleared of rape allegations but far from free, Julian
Assange is still holed up in London’s Ecuadoran embassy in a small room without
sunlight for daring to expose America’s war crimes and its contempt for
sovereignty and international law. Official documents show that Sweden has
consistently submitted to pressure from the US, while London’s Metropolitan
Police are at the ready to arrest him if he steps outside.
“But what then? Months in prison until the US delivers its
extradition request and he’s dragged before a secret Grand Jury set up seven
years ago? According to Edward Snowden, Washington’s bid to get Assange is
‘unprecedented in scale and nature’ with threats of kidnapping and
assassination swirling around.
Refreshing to hear from a great Cuban. ’Cuba will always
support Palestine…,’ from Rene Gonzalez, one of the Cuban Five speaking in
Beirut at the inaugural session of the 3rd International Arab Forum on Justice
for Palestine. ‘The people of Cuba have always been in solidarity with the
Palestinian cause,’ he said.
“Good news! After 38 years of unremitting hatred for Cuba,
rabid right-winger Ileana RosLehtinen has retired from Congress. About bloody
time…
“Joan Coxsedge”
Posts
