A year of Rudd's wars

By Hamish Chitts

Many who voted for the ALP on November 24, 2007, did so thinking that a Rudd Labor government would end Australia’s involvement in the US-led war in Iraq. One year on and the Australian military under PM Kevin Rudd is still an active cog in the US-led imperialism war machine in Iraq.

In the lead up to the 2007 election, Rudd described the decision by the Howard Coalition government to go to war in Iraq as the “single greatest error” of Australian foreign policy since the Vietnam War. He told voters that if Labor was elected “the combat force in Iraq, we would have home by around about the middle of next year”, adding that a Rudd government would leave behind some Australian soldiers to provide security at Australia’s embassy in Baghdad.

Upon Labor’s election, newspaper headlines in Australia and around the world proclaimed that the incoming Australian government was going to withdraw its troops from Iraq in 2008. On June 28 Rudd used a welcome home parade through Brisbane’s streets marking the return of 550 Australian Battle Group troops from southern Iraq to give the impression that he had fulfilled this promise to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq. But according to Australian defence department figures, the reality of Rudd leaving “some Australian soldiers” in Iraq is that there are currently 980 Australian troops are stationed there — nearly twice the number that were withdrawn in June and an increase of 145 troops on the 835 that remained in Iraq in June.

When confronted with this fact, Rudd’s apologists will argue that his government did bring home from Iraq the “combat” troops as he promised, but this too is false. Many of the 980 Australian Defence Force personnel that are in Iraq are in officially recognised combat roles. Furthermore, all of the ADF personnel in Iraq play some role in the continuing US-led war. There is no such thing as a “non-combatant” role for someone wearing an Australian uniform in Iraq.

In a speech to parliament in March, on the fifth anniversary of the US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq, Rudd denounced Howard’s decision to commit Australian troops to fight in Iraq, saying: “Have further terrorist attacks been prevented? No, they have not been, as the victims of the Madrid train bombing will attest. Has any evidence of a link between weapons of mass destruction and the former Iraqi regime and terrorists been found? No. After five years, has the humanitarian crisis in Iraq been removed? No it has not.” Rudd says one thing then does another. It’s complete hypocrisy for Rudd to publicly denounce Howard’s decision to invade Iraq, make a show of bringing some of the troops home and yet still provide nearly 1000 troops to the US-led occupation of Iraq. If Rudd were really opposed to the occupation of Iraq he would have already withdrawn all the ADF personnel from Iraq.

While Rudd, his spin-doctors and their willing apologists in the corporate media have led many people to believe that all Australian troops have been withdrawn from Iraq, his phoney withdrawal is merely a re-shuffling of warfare for the tiny and overstretched ADF. Most of the 550 troops who have returned will soon be used to bolster Australian efforts to defend the corrupt US-installed puppet government of Afghanistan. One of the first things Rudd did after being sworn in as prime minister on December 3 last year was visit Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assure him and his US masters that Canberra was fully committed to the imperialist war in Afghanistan. Rudd told Australian troops in Afghanistan: “We’re committed to being here for the long haul.”

Rudd has always maintained that Afghanistan is a “just” war and that somehow Australians are safer for it. In an October 15 address to the C.E.W Bean Foundation at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Rudd said: “Our commitment to Afghanistan is critical. It is critical because it is clearly in our national interest.” He added: “Under the Taliban, the people of Afghanistan lived in an environment of oppression and extreme poverty with the constant threat of violence.”

But under the rule of US-backed warlords and opium barons, the people of Afghanistan face even greater oppression and poverty than they did under the Taliban. They not only have to endure the constant threat of violence from local warlords and their militias, but also from US-led foreign occupation forces who carry out indiscriminate air attacks on their villages. On July 6, for example, US warplanes attacked a village wedding party killing the bride and 22 others.

In September 2006 the BBC’s South Asia bureau chief, Paul Danahar reported that “when the Taliban were driven out [of Kabul and other Afghan cities] and the old regional warlords came back, so did a lot of robbery, rape and murder”. Danahar reported that the Taliban had made “southern Afghanistan a lot safer for ordinary people than it is now”.

As the US-led occupation continues, more and more Afghans aren’t just voicing their opposition to it; they are willing to take up arms against the world’s most powerful military and its allies. Many were not previously supporters of the Taliban but now see it as a lesser evil to the horrors of the US-led occupation.

The majority of military and intelligence analysts around the world agree that the invasion of Afghanistan has increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks against those countries involved in the invasion and occupation. In a 2007 Center for American Progress survey, 91 of America’s top 100 foreign-policy experts believed that the world was less safe for US citizens after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. While there has never been a strong credible threat of a terrorist attack in Australia, the Rudd governments continual involvement in the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq actually increases this threat.

On July 8 SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy became the sixth Australian soldier to die as part of the occupation of Afghanistan when a roadside improvised explosive device was detonated as the vehicle he was in passed by. McCarthy’s death was the first by an Australian soldier in Afghanistan since Rudd’s election. Commenting on McCarthy’s death, Rudd said: “We’ve had losses before, my fear is we will lose them again.” This was an attempt to prepare the families of Australian soldiers for more deaths in the face of growing Afghan resistance to the occupation of their country. Rudd’s “fear” was confirmed on November 27 when another Australian soldier was killed by a roadside bomb during a skirmish with Taliban forces.

Under Rudd there has been an increase in ADF personnel numbers in Afghanistan — from 950 when he came into office at the end of 2007 to 1090, according to the latest defence department figures.

Currently we have the absurd situation where most people in Australia oppose Australian participation in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq yet the protests against them have gotten smaller and smaller since the election of the Rudd government. This is largely due to Rudd’s success in convincing opponents of the Iraq war that Australia has withdrawn its troops and the corporate media’s success in demonising the Afghan resistance — convincing them that the occupation is a lesser evil to the return of Taliban rule.

One lesson that can be drawn from this past year is that it wasn’t a particular right-wing ideology under John Howard or George Bush that resulted in Australian and US troops being sent to and kept in Iraq and Afghanistan. The capitalist rulers and their politicians in both the US and other imperialist countries including Australia need these occupations to secure their control over the energy resources of the Third World. This is why Australian Labor, a party that has always defended the interests of imperialist capitalism, is just as committed to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq as John Howard and George Bush.

From Direct Action, Sydney, Australia www.directaction.org.au

Dollars from death: The arms industry in Australia

By Hamish Chitts

The global arms industry is a very lucrative way for businesses to profit from death, destruction and oppression. It is estimated that each year 2% of world gross domestic product (GDP), or more than US$1 trillion, is spent on the military. Part of this goes to the procurement of military hardware and services from the arms industry.

Australia’s rich want a greater share of this global industry. Particularly the governments of Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory are vying with each other to be the most arms industry-friendly place in the Asia Pacific. Promoting the Asia Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition (since cancelled due to planned protests), organisers of this arms fair proudly announced in a press release in September 2007, that between 1994 and 2006 the Asia Pacific was the only region with increased defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP. It has been forecast that the Asia Pacific will overtake Europe and the Middle East, becoming the world’s largest arms market with US$104 billion of military projects scheduled in the next 10 years, of which US$25 billion is projected from Australia. Threats of instability and future conflict, real or imagined, caused primarily by the US “war on terror”, are driving this arms race.

The Australian government’s military spending is over A$62 million per day. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Australia was the eighth largest arms importer for the period 2003-07, accounting for 3.08% of world deliveries. Most of this spending in was a result of Australia’s involvement in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, but there has also been lavish spending securing Australia from the threat of mythical terrorists, and the big players in the arms industry have been quick to exploit this market.

Privatisation

This new climate of government and corporate media-induced fear has not only allowed some of the most vile arms dealers to receive taxpayers’ money; it has also allowed these dealers to set up shop in Australia. In recent years, the federal government has privatised the local arms industry, which used to be dominated by state-owned enterprises such as Australian Defence Industries (ADI), whose sole purpose was to serve and supply the Australian armed forces. Now private, often multinational, corporations dominate arms and military equipment manufacturing. The former ADI is now owned by Thales Australia, the local branch of the French-based Thales Group.

Before privatisation, the production of arms through the defence department allowed some public scrutiny through limited parliamentary processes. Since privatisation, the arms industry has been able to shroud itself in secrecy by classifying all its activities as “commercial in confidence”. It has allowed more weapons and military hardware to be produced for export. According to figures gathered by the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, from July to December 2006, Australian-based arms dealers exported A$314,387,766 worth of arms, including A$84,623,989 to the United States and A$21,445,060 to Israel.

Australia’s biggest arms export market is the US. Because of this, the four big defence companies in Australia — Raytheon, Boeing, Thales and BAE — are now allowed to hire, fire and redeploy people based on where they were born. Under a recently signed defence trade agreement between Australia and the US, Australian-based arms dealers are required to investigate the birthplace of their workers if they want to do business with the US government, and anti-discrimination laws have been bent to allow this. Countries proscribed include Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, China, Cyprus, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Employees only have to have been born in one of these countries (no other factors are considered). Washington can add to or change the list any time it likes.

Nuclear connection

Multinational arms dealers with dubious records like BAE Systems and Raytheon are now firmly planted in Australia. BAE Systems, the third largest global arms dealer, has locations at Abbotsford (Victoria), Braddon (ACT), Edinburgh (SA), Holden Hill (SA), North Ryde (NSW), Tamworth (NSW) and Williamstown (NSW). BAE is indirectly engaged in production of nuclear weapons. It is involved with the production and support of the ASMP missile, an air-launched missile that forms part of France’s nuclear arsenal. BAE is also the UK’s only nuclear submarine manufacturer and thus produces a key element of the UK’s nuclear weapons capability. US-based Raytheon is the fifth largest global arms dealer. It has offices in Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney, Nowra, Alice Springs, Tindal (NT), Perth and Adelaide.

Raytheon is most infamous for its development and production of cluster munitions, each containing hundreds of smaller bomblets that scatter before they hit the ground. Many of the bomblets do not explode initially, leaving deadly unexploded “duds” for years afterwards. The New York-based Human Rights Watch organisation estimates that 1600 Iraqi and Kuwaiti civilians were killed and 2500 injured between 1991 and 1993 by unexploded cluster bomblets dropped by the US and UK in the first Gulf War. Because the bombs’ appearance is toy-like and attractive to children, 60% of those victims were children under 15.

Land Warfare Conference

BAE Systems and Raytheon, along with more than 200 others, attended the Land Warfare Conference in Brisbane in the last week of October. The conference is the Australian army’s annual planning and strategy meeting. Once exclusively involving military and government personnel, in recent years it has been opened to arms dealers. It now tours around the country each year looking for pleasant locations to do business. At these conferences, army heads meet and socialise with big business and academics and discuss army strategy and policy, with particular emphasis on the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Arms dealers are able to pitch their products of death and destruction directly to the conference, allowing aspects of army policy to be set by the public relations and advertising campaigns of arms dealers.

The security of Australian working people is not enhanced, but undermined, by the continued dominance of big business interests over the Australian Defence Force. Hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed in the illegal and unjustifiable occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, primarily for oil profits and to help maintain big business domination of the Third World. The money arms dealers receive comes directly from the wages of working people via taxes and diverts resources that could be used for health, education and our social and environmental security. The billions of dollars consumed by Australian imperialism’s war budget should be reallocated to help meet the social needs of working people.

The Australian government can spend A$62 million per day on the military, yet it can’t pay for adequate health care for working people. Decisions related to war must be taken out of the hands of the capitalists, their political representatives and general staffs. Working people and rank-and-file soldiers have a right to know all the real aims and commitments of the government’s military and foreign policy. All military and diplomatic treaties, agreements and business contracts should be made accessible to the public, and the public should have the right to vote directly on the question of war.

[Hamish Chitts is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party in Brisbane and one of the founders of Stand Fast, an organisation of veterans and service people against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For information about Stand Fast visit www.stand-fast.webs.com or phone 0401 586 923.]

From Direct Action, Sydney, Australia www.directaction.org.au

The hidden casualties of war

By Hamish Chitts

Officially the governments that wage war on the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan acknowledge that by August 26 this year, 4460 of their troops had died in Iraq and 934 had died in Afghanistan. Warmongers like US President George Bush and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd claim that they honour every sacrifice made by the working people they have led into fighting these wars, whose only purpose is to maintain and increase the profits of big business. However, their actions prove that they do not believe their own rhetoric. Their deliberate attempts to distort and hide the real human cost of these imperialist wars shows the callous disregard they have for the people they claim to represent.

“Officially about 4100 GIs have died in Iraq till now, but in reality there have been approximately 25,000”, US Army sergeant and Iraq Veterans Against the War member Selena Coppa was quoted as saying by the July 7 German newspaper Tageszeitung. Coppa went on to explain how fatality statistics are falsified when badly injured soldiers are flown to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for treatment. If they die in transit to or while in Landstuhl, they are officially counted as deaths in Germany rather than as fatalities of the war in Iraq.

Coppa said that “about 120” US war veterans commit suicide each week. She referred to an investigation by the CBS television network that found that in 2005 alone at least 6200 veterans killed themselves. In that one year, US military losses to suicide were higher than the official figure of US troop fatalities over five years of war in Iraq.
87,000 US Iraq war casualties

As of July 15, the official figure for US military personnel injured in Iraq reached 67,203. This included 33,766 dead and wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as “hostile” causes and more than 33,437 dead and medically evacuated (as of May 31) because of “non-hostile” causes. In a July 15 article for GI Special (an internal information service produced by war resisters within the US armed forces), Michael Munk reported that the actual total is more than 87,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as “Iraq casualties” the approximately 20,000 casualties discovered only after they returned from Iraq — mainly from brain trauma from explosions. Again, these figures do not include mental health casualties with approximately 30% of the hundreds of thousands of US Iraq veterans being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Coppa also told Tageszeiting of the particular price women in the US military are paying. According to a study by Columbia University professor Helen Benedict, of the approximately 200,000 US woman soldiers in combat zones since the beginning of the “Global War on Terror” in 2001, almost three-quarters have been sexually harassed and almost a third have been raped. “I too know many such cases”, Coppa said. “A woman soldier in Iraq died of dehydration, because she did not dare go to drink water in the hospital area, she was too afraid of being raped. Another female soldier was raped by a group of men, but was sentenced for alcohol abuse. All this is kept quiet,” she said.
The ‘little Aussie battler’

Australia is the only country to have participated in all the major wars of the 20th and 21st centuries directly involving the UK and/or the US governments. Australian governments have sent Australians to fight as junior partners of British imperialism in the Boer War, World War I and World War II, and as junior partners of US imperialism in Korea, Vietnam, the two Gulf wars, and Afghanistan. History books tell us that Australian casualties for World War II are 33,826 killed and 180,864 wounded but these figures only count the physical casualties from this particular war. They do not reflect the psychological wounds inflicted on those who directly participated in this war or on those close to them.

Due to a combination of lack of understanding, no official record keeping and official government and military denial, there are no reliable figures describing the psychological casualties suffered by Australian troops in the first half of the 20th century. This does not mean they did not occur. In 2000, Monash University’s Margaret Lindorff interviewed 88 survivors of battles along the Kokoda Track in 1942. She found many said that they had yet to recover from the experience.

Many indicated continuing ill effects including nightmares, sleeplessness, negative imagery, “flashbacks”, problems with concentration, weeping, generalised anxiety, and distress caused by situations recalling the battle. Many also commented that they had never talked to anyone about their war experiences, or the effects of these experiences. Of the 88 veterans only two veterans reported seeking or receiving any treatment for their symptoms. The emerging experience of World War II veterans is a long way from the myth that the rich and powerful who profit from war would like us to believe — that after the end of the war in 1945 veterans just rolled up their sleeves and got back to work.
The Vietnam War homecoming myth

Australian governments and the corporate media, like their counterparts in the US, continue to propagate the myth that the well-publicised psychological casualties of the Vietnam War were due to the lack of a proper welcome home, rather than participation by soldiers in a brutal counterinsurgency war against a national liberation movement. As if some ticker-tape parade would have erased the mental trauma and anguish suffered by soldiers in Vietnam. Imperialist politicians in the US and Australia, from Bush senior to Bush junior, from Howard to Rudd, have all used this myth to try to discourage the growth of a movement against their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They say: Look how the protesters traumatised the Vietnam veterans. If you protest Iraq or Afghanistan you will traumatise the new veterans. In Australia and the US, the warmakers have tried to shift the blame from themselves to those who protest against the wars that are killing Iraqis, Afghans, young Americans and young Australians.

A recent Australian government-funded study showed that after more than 50 years Korean War veterans are significantly more likely to suffer psychological problems than a control group. They are also three times more likely to suffer alcohol-related problems. Only 18% felt “pleased about their life” compared with 40% of other elderly men. Major research on the health of Australian veterans of the first Gulf War shows their mental health years later was strikingly worse than that of Australian Defence Force personnel not deployed to the Middle East. It also found that of the 900 ADF personnel who had served in war-torn Somalia, at least 20% had serious mental health problems. Hundreds from the East Timor deployment have lodged compensation claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

These figures are still only a fraction of the psychological casualties from these conflicts as some veterans would not have sought help and many more may not suffer conditions such as PTSD until years, sometimes decades, after their return. None of the figures reflect the psychological casualties these conflicts inflict upon the children of veterans either.

Information collated from a “grassroots” self-reported study conducted by the Partners of Veterans Association of Australia of 2500 children and grandchildren of Australian Vietnam War veterans has found that 70% of children and 30% of grandchildren suffer mental health problems. The proportion of the total Australian population suffering these problems is 18%. There can be a significant impact generations after a conflict. Many families of World War II veterans bore the brunt of black moods and difficult behaviour. It is only now that the children of World War II veterans are looking at their father’s or mother’s temper, drinking problem, panic attacks and depression, which impacted upon them, and realising this was due to their parent’s wartime experience.

Since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 the Australian government has sent tens of thousands of military personnel to both Iraq and Afghanistan. This year around 7000 Australian army, navy and air force personnel will be directly involved in these wars. Given the experience of previous conflicts and those of current US military personnel, it is not unreasonable to assume that at least one-third of these people will become psychological casualties. This equates to over 2000 Australian casualties this year without even considering those who will be killed or physically wounded. Add to this the casualties among the children and grandchildren of these 7000 and the casualty figure will exceed 10,000.

This is yet another reason why people in Australia and around the world need to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The imperialist governments will not willingly withdraw their troops. The business interests that these governments serve believe in sacrificing (other, i.e., working people’s) “blood” for “oil” profits or anticipated profits, just as they believe in sacrificing workers’ health and safety on the job for corporate profits.

The US rulers and their Australian allies have already lost the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The majority of Iraqis and Afghans are against the occupations of their countries by foreign troops and their resistance to these occupations has proved that it will not be crushed. We need to minimise the casualties of these wars by reinvigorating resistance at home to these wars by taking the anti-war message into our workplaces, schools and universities, and into the ranks of the armed forces.

[Hamish Chitts is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party in Brisbane and one of the founders of Stand Fast, an organisation of veterans and service people against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For information about Stand Fast visit www.stand-fast.webs.com or phone 0401 586 923.]

From Direct Action, Sydney, Australia www.directaction.org.au

Rudd and Nelson reveal contempt for soldiers

By Kathy Newnam

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and federal Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson have shown their willingness to use the soldiers they claim to honour and respect to suit their own political ends, cynically using the emotions generated by the return of Australia’s Overwatch Battle Group from southern Iraq and the death in early July of the sixth Australian soldier in Afghanistan since 2002, to promote their bipartisan pro-war agenda.

On June 28, Rudd used a welcome home parade through Brisbane’s streets marking the return of the 500-member battle group from southern Iraq to give the impression that he had withdrawn Australia’s troops from the US-led war on Iraq. Hamish Chitts, a former Australian infantry soldier, East Timor veteran and spokesperson for Stand Fast, a group of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the current wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, told Direct Action: “Stand Fast is glad that those soldiers are no longer being placed in harm’s way for the sake of the profits the Western oil corporations hope to get out of Iraq. But this so-called withdrawal is less than one third of the Australian military personnel deployed in Iraq. The other two thirds will continue to remain in harms way supporting this unpopular and unjustifiable occupation.”
Phoney withdrawal

Chitts went on to note that Canberra’s direct military commitment to the occupation of Iraq is now approximately 835 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, including: a combat team of about 110 soldiers comprised of two infantry platoons, a cavalry troop, a military police detachment and some combat service logistic support personnel. “This continued commitment of direct support for the US-led war belies the claim, made by much of the media in Australia, that all Australian combat forces have been withdrawn”, said Chitts. He also noted that a Royal Australian Air Force detachment of about 160 personnel operates three C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and that about 110 ADF personnel are either part of the US-led Multi-National Force headquarters or serving on exchange in the militaries of other nations in Iraq. There is also an RAAF detachment of about 170 personnel conducting maritime patrol operations, with two AP-3C Orion aircraft.

“There is also a Royal Australian Navy ANZAC-class frigate with approximately 160 personnel patrolling the northern Persian Gulf as part of Operation Catalyst, which works with US and British warships to guard Iraq’s offshore oil assets, and to carry out provocations along Iran’s coastline”, said Chitts. He pointed out that 15 ADF personnel are employed with the Coalition Counter Improvised Explosive Device Task Force that coordinates efforts focused on intelligence collection, material solutions and training for the US-led occupation forces throughout Iraq, and that there is a tri-service (army, RAAF and RAN) grouping of 110 personnel that are responsible for a range of logistic, training and communications activities.

“The removal of some combat elements is far from a withdrawal of Australia’s involvement in the war against the Iraqi people. It is a re-shuffling. Most of the troops who have recently returned will soon be used to bolster Australian military efforts to defend the corrupt puppet government of Afghanistan and Western business interests in that country”, said Chitts. Australia currently has just over 1000 troops in Afghanistan, making Canberra the 10th-largest provider of foreign occupation personnel to the Central Asian country and the largest non-NATO occupation contingent.

The emotive atmosphere created by the relief of the battle group soldiers to be out of Iraq and the relief at their safe return by their relatives was too tempting a political opportunity for Rudd to pass up. At the June 28 ceremony he proclaimed: “Freedom is not for free. Freedom comes at a price and you are our front line in the defence of our freedom.” But, Chitts observed, “since the previous Iraqi government headed by Saddam Hussein, ousted through the US-British-Australian invasion of 2003, never had the means nor the aim of invading Australia (or the US or Britain), the ADF’s role in Iraq was not and isn’t to defend ordinary Australians’ freedoms. As the AWB scandal revealed, Australian troops were sent to invade and occupy Iraq to protect Australian business interests there. Labor has always claimed to have opposed the Iraq invasion, but now Rudd tells us it was to protect “our freedom”!

With 63% of Australians opposed to Australia’s involvement in the war in Iraq and just over 50% opposed to Australian involvement in the war in Afghanistan, Chitts asked: “How can Rudd claim to be acting for freedom and democracy when a majority in this country want all the troops bought home? And it is not just freedom and democracy here that is being ignored; the majority of Iraqis and the majority of Afghans don’t want foreign troops occupying their countries. That’s why the people of Iraq and Afghanistan will keep resisting the occupation forces. The only freedom being fought for by Australian troops in these countries is the freedom of the big corporations to exploit new markets and to secure control of Iraq’s oilfields. It only costs $1.50 to extract a barrel of oil out of the ground in Iraq. With oil now priced at around $140 a barrel, and predicted to go higher, the privatisation of Iraq’s nationalised oil resources will bring a profits bonanza to the big Western oil companies.”

In March this year, on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Rudd denounced the Howard Coalition government’s decision to involve Australian troops in the Iraq war, telling the federal parliament: “Have further terrorist attacks been prevented? No, they have not been, as the victims of the Madrid train bombing will attest. Has any evidence of a link between weapons of mass destruction and the former Iraqi regime and terrorists been found? No. After five years, has the humanitarian crisis in Iraq been removed? No it has not.” Chitts told DA: “While opponents of the war in Iraq will agree with these comments, Rudd says one thing then does another. It’s complete hypocrisy for the Labor politicians to publicly oppose the war in Iraq, make a show of bringing some of the troops home and yet still provide nearly 1000 military personnel to support the US occupation of Iraq. The troops still in Iraq not only provide practical support for the occupation but also help legitimise the notion that the occupiers are a coalition of nations rather than essentially just the US. If Rudd really opposes the occupation of Iraq, he should withdraw all the ADF personnel.”
Afghanistan

On July 8, SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy became the sixth Australian soldier to die as part of the occupation of Afghanistan when a roadside improvised explosive device was detonated as the vehicle he was in passed by. Two other soldiers and a “coalition national” were injured by the blast. The soldiers were based at Tarin Kowt military base in Oruzgan province in the south-east of Afghanistan. Rudd’s response, said Chitts: “highlighted his commitment to keeping Australian troops in Afghanistan, propping up the US-installed puppet regime” of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Rudd said: “We’ve had losses before, my fear is we will lose them again.”

Brendan Nelson, seeing an opportunity to use McCarthy’s death to try to turn public opinion to support the war in Afghanistan, claimed that: “Signaller McCarthy has given his life in our name, in the cause of fighting extremism and the Taliban in particular. It’s essential that we continue to fight these terrorists in their own backyard so they do not get into ours, here in Australia.” Chitts pointed out that the Taliban is not, and never has been, officially listed by either Washington or Canberra as a “terrorist” organisation. He said Stand Fast was disgusted by Nelson’s patronising rhetoric. “To hide this war under the cloak of a war against terrorists is ridiculous. As veterans and ex-service personnel, we reject this attempt to say that anyone in Afghanistan has died in our name. We think Dr Nelson is looking after the interests of Australian big business and trying to justify it up by claiming the people of Afghanistan have the capability and desire to invade Australia. That’s absurd. Stand Fast would like to ask Dr Nelson and Mr Rudd, did the bride and 22 other members of her wedding party who were killed by US bombs in Nangarhar province on July 6 also give their lives in our name? Were they terrorists, plotting to invade Australians’ backyards? Have the thousands of other civilians who have already died as part a result of the occupation of Afghanistan also given their lives in our name?”

Not to be outdone by Nelson’s comments on McCarthy’s death, Labor war minister Joel Fitzgibbon told July 14 Australian newspaper, Australians have a “quite robust” tolerance for battlefield casualties in Afghanistan, and “Australians understood the national interest was under direct threat in Afghanistan, and accepted the risks facing the Diggers”. Chitts told DA: “If both Australian soldiers and civilians think the Canberra politicians are really risking the lives of the troops for them, they wouldn’t think it acceptable. Fitzgibbon’s, Nelson’s and Rudd’s comments are that of butchers preparing the Australian people for the bill in lives that ordinary Australians will have to pay as the resistance to foreign occupation in Afghanistan escalates.”

Chitts explained that before the US-led invasion, production of opium, the key ingredient in heroin, had virtually been wiped out from Afghanistan by the Taliban regime. “Since then Afghanistan, one of poorest countries in the world, has re-emerged as the world’s main opium supplier. The UN estimates that Afghanistan now accounts for 93% of the global market in illegal opiates. The total area used for opium cultivation increased by 59% in 2006 and by a further 17% last year, according to a UN report released on March 5. The US bribed and continues to bribe Afghan warlords, who profit from the opium trade, to gain their support, which has not only allowed the rapid growth of opium production but has also created a culture of corruption in Afghanistan. In 2001 alone, Afghan warlords were given US$70 million in bribes by the CIA to turn against the Taliban government.

“The US-backed government of Afghanistan controls little more than the capital, Kabul, with the warlords ruling the rest with an iron fist. Corruption among police and local authorities is worst in southern Afghanistan, where drug profits are highest. Despite his repeated public denials, President Karzai’s half-brother Wali, head of Kandahar’s provincial council, continues to be accused by senior government sources, as well as foreign analysts and officials, as having a key role in orchestrating the movement of heroin from Kandahar westward through Helmand province and out across the Iranian border.” Chitts explained that the continued occupation of Afghanistan is aimed at securing US oil corporations’ access to the huge gasfields in Turkmenistan and the oilfields in Kazakhstan, to the north of Afghanistan, including a possible pipeline from these fields through Afghanistan to lucrative markets in Pakistan and India.”

Chitts said that the war in Afghanistan was initiated to use the shock of Al Qaeda’s terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Centre to prepare public opinion for an already planned attack on oil-rich Iraq. “Soldiers are sacrificing their lives and civilians are being killed so that big-business interests in the West will be able to earn huge profits from controlling the energy resources of Central Asia. Of course we in Stand Fast don’t support the politics and religious fanaticism of the Taliban. Initially the Taliban was easily defeated because they didn’t have the support of most Afghans. Now their ranks are being swelled, not by people who have suddenly been won over to the Taliban’s view of the world, but by people who oppose US-backed Karzai regime of warlords and opium barons whose rule our troops help impose.

“The Labor and Liberal politicians in Australia are vying with each other to be more `the Digger’s friend’ than the other. Most of these politicians have never served in ADF, and would be mortified if their children served. These politicians betray the criminal disregard they have for the soldiers in sending them to risk their lives to impose Western business interests on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Whether it is the use of a welcome home parade to hide the continual participation in the bloody US-led occupation of Iraq or the disgusting use of a soldier’s death to sell the unpopular and unjustifiable war in Afghanistan, these politicians must be exposed, condemned and publicly challenged. We can write letters to these politicians and send out media releases but these will not change anything if there isn’t visible public pressure on them in the first place. We need to get people back onto the streets in protest. No more blood should be shed for the corporate profiteers and their political servants. Those who truly support our troops should support Stand Fast’s call to bring all the military personnel, from all the foreign countries involved, home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

For more information about Stand Fast or if you are a veteran, currently serving or have served in the armed forces and would like to get involved, phone 0401 586 923, email standfast.au@gmail.com or visit www.stand-fast.webs.com/

From Direct Action. Sydney, Australia

Veteran Group disgusted by Nelson’s patronising rhetoric about soldier’s death

The Australian-based veterans group Stand Fast today rejected statements made by Federal opposition leader Brendan Nelson regarding the tragic death in Afghanistan of SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy.

Stand Fast spokesperson Hamish Chitts said the group, comprised of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, regards the rhetorical remarks of Dr Nelson as a vile attempt to turn public opinion to support the war in Afghanistan.

“This war is primarily about having easier access to the oilfields in Turkmenistan to the North of Afghanistan, including a possible pipeline from these oilfields through Western Afghanistan to lucrative markets in Pakistan and India. Soldiers are sacrificing their lives so that others can earn a profit from it,” he said.

“To bury this war under the cloak of democracy and a war on terror is ridiculous. As veterans and ex-service personnel, we reject this attempt to say that anyone in Afghanistan has died in our name. We think Dr Nelson is looking after the interests of big business and dressing it up to look like the people of Afghanistan have the capability and desire to invade Sydney,” Chitts said.

Chitts’ comments came after Brendan Nelson was quoted as saying; "Signaller McCarthy has given his life in our name, in the cause of fighting extremism and the Taliban in particular.”

“Stand Fast would like to ask Mr Nelson and Mr Rudd did the bride and 22 other members of her wedding party who were killed by U.S. bombs in Nangarhar province on Sunday (July 6) also give their lives in our name? Have the thousands of other civilians who have already died as part of the occupation of Afghanistan also given their lives in our name?” Chitts asked.

“Of course we don’t support the politics and religious fundamentalism of the Taliban. Initially the Taliban was easily defeated because they didn’t have the support of most Afghanis. Now their ranks are being swelled, not by people who have suddenly been won over to the Taliban’s view of the World but by people who oppose the puppet regime of thugs and opium barons whose rule our troops help enforce.” he said.

“These members of parliament, both Labor and Coalition vie with each other to be more ‘the diggers friend’ than the other. Most have never served in the Defence Force nor left the comforts of their parliamentary offices. The fact that these politicians use this death to sell their unpopular and unjustifiable war in Afghanistan is disgusting. As veterans our thoughts are with Sean’s family and all those still in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan. No more blood should be shed for the profiteers, bring the troops home now,” Chitts said.


For further information
contact Hamish on 0401 586 923
or email standfast.au@gmail.com
or www.stand-fast.webs.com

Anti-war veterans group welcomes home troops, condemns false withdrawal

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23 June 2008

A parade through Brisbane streets on June 28^th marking the return of last Australian Battle Group from Southern Iraq is being falsely heralded as a withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq.

“Stand Fast, welcomes home the troops that have recently returned from Southern Iraq,” said Hamish Chitts, former Australian infantry soldier, East Timor veteran and founder of Stand Fast, a group of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the current wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We are glad that they are no longer being placed in harm’s way for the sake of oil and the interests of global corporations. Unfortunately this so called withdrawal is less than one third of the Australian military personnel currently in Iraq. The other two thirds will continue to remain in harms way supporting this unpopular and unjustifiable occupation.”

Chitts explained that “it is far from a withdrawal - it is a re-shuffling. Most of the troops who have recently returned will soon be used to bolster Australian military efforts to defend the corrupt puppet government of Afghanistan and U.S. government and business interests in that country.”

63% of Australians today are opposed to the war in Iraq and over 50% oppose the war Afghanistan. Chitts asked, “How can Kevin Rudd claim to be acting for democracy when a majority in this country want all the troops bought home? And it is not just democracy here that is being ignored; the majority of Iraqis and the majority of Afghanis don’t want foreign troops occupying their land. That’s why the people of Iraq and Afghanistan will keep resisting the occupation of their countries.”

“So while we welcome home these troops, we continue to condemn the criminal politicians who sent them to Iraq, who kept them there and are continuing to send troops to participate in the bloody US-led occupation. Those who truly support our troops should join our call to bring all the military personnel, from all the countries involved, home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

For further information

contact Hamish on 0401 586 923

or email standfast.au@gmail.com

or www.stand-fast.webs.com

Veterans Join Anti-war Movement in Australia

The following speech by Hamish Chitts marked Stand Fast's public launch at the Palm Sunday Peace Rally in Queens Park, Brisbane, 17th March.


Photo: Hamish Chitts at Palm Sunday Rally by Willy Bach


I would like to acknowledge the Turrabul and Jaggera people on whose land the people of Brisbane live and continue to profit from with no true recompense to the Jaggera or the Turrabul.


I am from a new veterans group called Stand Fast which is being launched nationally today. We have someone speaking at the rally in Melbourne today and someone in Sydney as well.

Stand Fast is a group of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the current wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We who have borne arms denounce these wars because:

· These wars are about money, power and fear.

· Soldiers are people; they are our neighbours, our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.

· Too many have died, often leaving behind partners, children and other loved ones.

· Many will carry the psychological scars for the rest of their lives.

Stand Fast seeks to add weight to the antiwar movement in Australia through organising veterans to speak out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and by debunking the myth that “If you’re against the war, you’re against the troops.

We are also encouraging current serving members of the Australian Defence Force to inform themselves about what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will provide advice and support for those who may question serving in either of these wars. During the Vietnam War an anti-war movement grew within the U.S. that by 1971 had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. This group added great strength to the anti-war movement and by the Pentagon’s own figures, 503,926 “incidents of desertion” occurred between 1966 and 1971; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In 1972 there was fear among some generals that the majority of their armed forces would mutiny and take control if the Vietnam War did not end soon.

Stand Fast also draws inspiration from U.S. based group Iraq Veterans Against the War. Last year when Matt Howard from Iraq Veterans Against the War spoke in cities around Australia he said, “In Iraq you saw this testosterone filled bloodlust. A lot of people just shot things for the sake of shooting things. Buses, vehicles, houses, whatever. Donkeys, camels...people.” Today, Matt and hundreds of other veterans travel to schools, universities and demonstrations to speak out against the war. In Australia alone his one tour encouraged thousands to protest against these wars. It is his testimony and that of other veterans that is having strong pull on people in the U.S. to protest against these wars.

There are Australian casualties occurring everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan that no one sees or hears about. Through my own experiences as a former infantry soldier and veteran and through those of my mates I can tell you no one who sees active service comes back the same. Recent figures from America have shown that troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering 3 times more Post Traumatic Stress Disorder than their counterparts did on return from Vietnam. But it doesn’t just effect those who’ve been directly involved, it effects their children and even their grandchildren. A recent survey of 2500 children and grandchildren of Australian Vietnam veterans has found 70% of children and 30% of grandchildren suffer psychiatric or psychological problems. The average for Australia is 18%. So currently the thousands of Australians sent to Iraq and Afghanistan each year equates to tens of thousands of lives adversely effected either directly or indirectly by mental health problems that has a flow on effect through generations to come.

So military personnel are risking their minds as well as their bodies and for what are we as people and as communities paying this high price for? For what are Iraqi and Afghani civilians paying with their bodies and their minds for? It is being done for oil, in the interests of multi-national corporations and it is being done for strategic real estate for the U.S. military. Most people recognise this about Iraq but not everyone knows that the same reasons have brought about the occupation of Afghanistan. In 1998 Californian company UNOCAL withdrew from negotiations with the Taliban government after failing for several years to be allowed to build a gas pipeline from fields in Turkmenistan through Western Afghanistan to lucrative markets in Pakistan and India. The top negotiator for UNOCAL was fellow named Hummed Karzai. The same Karzai that is currently President of the puppet regime in Afghanistan which is comprised of warlord thugs who are no better to the people of Afghanistan than Taliban thugs they replaced. The pipeline however is back on the agenda.

Our new Prime Minister has called Afghanistan a ‘good’ war. It is not. It is no better than the war in Iraq and it is being done for the same reasons. But he knows this that is why he still supports the occupation of Iraq. Rudd has made a big public show of bringing the troops home from Iraq later in the year, but, when you look at the fine print he is only bringing back one third of the personnel currently over there.

That is why we need to keep coming out on the streets and why Stand Fast has formed. To show real support for the people in our armed forces, to show our real support for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan by demanding from the Rudd Government a true and complete troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you want further information about Stand Fast or if you are a veteran or have served in the armed forces of any country and would like to get involved (or know someone who would) please see me after the speakers have finished.

Bring the troops home now!

Veterans Join Anti-war Movement in Australia

Recently the founders of Stand Fast finalised their preparations for going public. Below is their statement of what they are about and contact details for those interested in joining.

Stand Fast is a group of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the current wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We who have borne arms denounce these wars because:

· These wars are about money, power and fear.

· Soldiers are people; they are our neighbours, our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.

· Too many have died, often leaving behind partners, children and other loved ones.

· Many will carry the psychological scars for the rest of their lives.

Stand Fast seeks to add weight to the antiwar movement in Australia through organising veterans to speak out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and by debunking the myth that “If you’re against the war, you’re against the troops.”


If you are a veteran or have served in any armed forces and would like to get involved contact:
t) 0401 586 923 or e) standfast.au@gmail.com

Speech at Tet Offensive 40 years on forum

Speech delivered by Hamish Chitts as part of a forum on the 40th Anniversary of the Tet Offensive, Brisbane Activist Centre, 31st January 2008.

Photo: Australian Soldiers in Vietnam

The fact has been widely publicised that many of service men and women who came back from the Vietnam War, returned with some from of mental scaring. The legacies, for some veterans, of the military training and combat experience in Vietnam include:
• difficulty in making sense of emotions in themselves and others
• difficulty in relationships
• excessive emotions or emotional bluntness
• resorting to ‘learned’ action responses (violence and other forms of abuse)

Combat in the Vietnam War exposed veterans to severe traumatic situations of
threat, death or serious injury for themselves and those around them. These
experiences often involved feelings of fear, helplessness or horror. Many veterans may have recurring thoughts and feelings about such traumatic events and in some veterans there will be a longer lasting disorder such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Conservative thinkers acting as apologists for the ruling class that created this War have eagerly taken up the idea that it wasn’t so much what happened in Vietnam that has caused these problems but the lack of a heroic homecoming that is the main cause. As if some ticker tape parade would have made things all right. Capitalist governments have used this idea to suppress antiwar movements in their own countries. They say, ”Look how the protesters traumatised the Vietnam veterans.” They shift the blame from themselves to those who protested. This is completely false. All conflicts take a high and lasting psychological toll on its participants.

Just looking at Australia: There is a growing number of surviving World War 2 veterans now seeking counseling for PTSD. A recent Federal Government funded study showed that after more than 50 years Korean War veterans are significantly more likely to suffer psychological problems than a control group. They are also three times more likely to suffer alcohol-related problems. Only 18 per cent felt "pleased about their life" compared with 40 per cent of other elderly men. Major research on the health of Australian veterans of the first Gulf War shows their mental health years later was strikingly worse than that of other defence force personnel not deployed to the Middle East. Of the 900 who had served in Somalia, at least 20 per cent had serious mental health problems. Hundreds from the East Timor deployment have lodged compensation claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs. There is an undeniable pattern here and it is happening again, right now 7000 Australian Defence Force personnel are being deployed each year on six-month stints to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Many of these men and women will be permanently crippled mentally. With the flow on effects to their families and communities this 7000 people deployed a year equates to 10’s of thousands of lives adversely effected every year this continues.

What can be done?

The introduction to the film Sir, No, Sir! states: During the Vietnam War an anti-war movement emerged that didn’t take place on university campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services.

By the Pentagon’s own figures, 503,926 “incidents of desertion” occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being “fragged”(killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 100 underground newspapers were published by soldiers around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself; stockades and federal prisons were filling up with soldiers jailed for their opposition to the war and the military.

Let us be clear, the main reason that stopped the Vietnam War and turned public opinion in the West against the war was the resistance of the Vietnamese people. However the GI antiwar movement was a strong expression of solidarity with the people of Vietnam and added a lot of weight to the antiwar movement in the U.S.

Today it is also the resistance of the Iraqi and Afghani people that bogs the U.S. and it allies down and turns public opinion against the wars there. The longer they have resisted the more people have realised the hypocrisy of the U.S. and allied governments’ reasoning for their involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In the name of ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ tens of thousands of civilians and thousands of troops have died to set up puppet governments run by warlords and thugs no better than the tyrants they have replaced. The only winners have been large multi-national companies who have made billions from the war and seek to gain more from Iraqi oil fields and a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan's oil fields through Afghanistan to lucrative markets in India and Pakistan.

I am one of the initiators of a new group called Stand Fast, which draws inspiration from the traditions of the G.I. antiwar movement and current groups in the U.S. such as Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Stand Fast is a group of veterans and former military personnel who oppose the current wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. We who have carried rifles denounce these wars because:

· These wars are about money, power and fear.
· Soldiers are people; they are our neighbours, our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.
· Too many have paid the price with their lives. Leaving behind partners and children who will never know their parents.
· Many will carry the psychological scars for the rest of their lives.

Stand Fast seeks to add weight to the antiwar movement in Australia through organising veterans to speak out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, by debunking the myth that “If you’re against the war, you’re against the individual service people involved.” We also seek to ferment and support resistance to these wars within the Australian Defence Force.

Stand Fast hopes to have speakers at the March 15/16th rallies marking the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. If anyone is interested in joining the group or knows of someone who might, please take one of these open letters. If you're not a veteran or former soldier I urge you to get involved in the antiwar movement, Brisbane we have the Stop The War Collective and I urge you be at the Palm Sunday rally on March 16th here in Brisbane protesting the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War.

Let’s bring all the troops home and stop anymore from going over.