Editorial:

Lies rejected

The farrago of lies told by Howard, Blair, Bush and their supporters to 
justify war against Iraq has not swayed millions of people in Australia and 
around the world. People are demonstrating their rejection of these 
lies.

Government leaders lied about weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq had 
links with al-Qaida, about the legality of their invasion, about the 
rightness of the cause, about regime change, that Australia is threatened 
by Iraq and that it is in Australia's national interest to go to war.

Faced with these failures the government and supporters of war are now 
attempting to hide behind the cry — "support our boys". Howard, Blair and 
even Crean are beating this drum as a desperate and backdoor means of 
pushing the Australian people into supporting an illegal, unjustified and 
criminal war. If those who now demand support for war were concerned about 
the well-being of the troops, they would never have sent them to Iraq in 
the first place. If the war is wrong and illegal what troops are being 
ordered to do in Iraq is also wrong and illegal.

The Australian troops are not defending Australia. They are involved in a 
war of blatant aggression against a sovereign country for illegal 
objectives. The invasion of Iraq is already an international crime.

The so-called "allied" troops — three countries out of 192 — are bringing 
death and destruction to one of the oldest centres of civilisation, highly 
cultured and highly educated.

The bombers, cruise missiles and attack helicopters are killing from a 
great height. The TV images that follow the missiles to their targets do 
not show the mangled bodies. This is what war is all about and this is what 
it is for — killing people, occupying another nation's land and seizing 
its resources.

Soldiers are trained to kill other human beings and that is what the 
invading forces are doing — killing civilians and Iraqi soldiers defending 
the sovereignty of their own country even though Iraq has been virtually 
disarmed compared with the technology arraigned against them.

Consideration is now being given to charging Howard and others responsible 
with war crimes Russian President Vladimir Putin has also hinted at similar 
moves.

When threatening the Iraqi leadership and military that they would be 
charged as war criminals unless they surrendered, George Bush declared that 
it would be no defence to say: "I was just following orders". This must 
also apply to others.

All these considerations mean nothing to those who run Australia's 
Government and the military and strategic analysts who regard war as a 
parlour game of tanks, planes, guided missiles. They do not speak about the 
people whose lives, children, and hopes are blighted.

These experts are joined by prostitute journalists of the ABC, CNN and 
other TV channels and the mass media who record their "on-the-spot" 
comments — an essential element in the service of the war machine. The 
consequences for the Iraqi people will be rapidly forgotten once their war 
game is over.

Many supporters of war have also invoked God on the side of war. "Godspeed" 
screamed Sydney's Daily Telegraph front page while Bush repeatedly 
intones, "God bless America" as though there is no other country in the 
world other than the USA.

"God bless America, Australia and Britain", wrote one correspondent to the 
Daily Telegraph. Another wrote, "May God be your protector". They 
call on a God to bless those whose job is killing. Their God is actually 
Mars, the Greek God of war.

The troops are also declared "freedom fighters" by the same media and 
politicians who savagely restrict the democratic rights of the people with 
so-called anti-terrorist legislation and, in some countries, violently 
suppress anti-war protests.

They will not liberate Iraq but impose an American occupation and a 
government that is totally subservient to US dictates as has already been 
done in Afghanistan.

The oil resources of Iraq will be stolen by the US and British 
corporations.

Millions of Iraqi families will be decimated, lives lost, homes destroyed, 
turned into refugees — thanks to the "allied" war machine in violation of 
international law.

That is why the demand to "Stop the War" is ringing out around the world.