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that paternalistic bullshit yesterday, implying we are all enamoured of the lies politicians tell about the military, erases millions of people who marched against the Vietnam war, marched against the invasion of Iraq, whose families moved here from Iraq and Afghanistan.
the invasion of Iraq was itself illegal. The UN Security Council did not sign off the invasion, which is the international law mechanism for legalising an invasion.
the only surprise here is that Australian soldiers might be convicted of committing war crimes. Scott Morrison using exceptionalism rhetoric to pretend this particular set of war crimes is an exception to ADF culture and practices is no surprise either.
must admit surprise that they sent in the plods and spooks to search ABC computers for investigating the story tho. Even with its massive overreach since the day Turnbull created Home Affairs to gift his factional enemy, to try to save his leadership (he failed), that shocked me.
this is the bloke who promoted and normalised towing boats loaded with people fleeing persecution out to open sea, to drown. The asylum seeker policy he designed with the butcher of Fallujah has been repeatedly condemned by the Commitee Against Torture. He is a fucking war crime.
anyway. Just saying that Morrison does not only steamroll over and silence women. That one line about “preparing Australians” to be “shocked” that the Australian military commit war crimes erased millions of us. We know.
which reminds me, that massacre of Arab villagers was over ten years before the last officially recognised massacre here, at Coniston in 1928. It also had all the hallmarks of colonising massacres: slaughter in revenge for a tiny, perceived theft of personal property. https://twitter.com/imusing/status/1326998462232109057
I am not in for a shock because I read the book this bloke wrote about Anzacs slaughtering Arab villagers in 1917; the article critiques our Anzackery exceptionalism; and STILL the headline valorises, verbatim and without quote marks, Morrison government messaging.
creation of Anzackery mythology and ref to Anzacs slaughtering villagers in Palestine here.
John war crime Howard’s strategy here - maximum trumpeting of war war war and minimum “casualties” ie dead Australians - truth, as always, the first casualty of John Howard’s decision to join Australia to US military violence - and the Nuremberg principle.
also there is no constitutional or legislative requirement that Australian PMs get approval of the parliament before sending ADF to fight in legal or illegal foreign wars. In contrast, the US Congress votes on POTUS decisions to declare war, even on an abstraction (“terror”).
and on that point about prime ministers escaping accountability for international crimes irregardless of whether individual soldiers are prosecuted or convicted, Howard joined us to an illegal invasion and Morrison is responsible for violating the Convention Against Torture /fin.
