'Break the military alliance with the US'

Raul Bassi, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Blaxland in Sydney's west, warns federal Labor leader Mark Latham not to retreat on his promise to bring the troops home from Iraq.

Pressure from Washington has pushed the ALP to swear its commitment to the US-Australia military alliance. But this alliance locks us into a future of more war and terror.

Latham's announcement that Kim "Bomber" Beazley will take the shadow defence portfolio shows that Labor wants to appease the White House hawks who were nervous about the ALP's commitment to the Iraq war and the "war on terror".

Latham's announcement that a future Labor government would not remove all the troops in the Gulf ignores the more than 50% of Australians who want all the troops brought home.

Surely the ALP's promise of $75 million for customs officers and 30 non-combat soldiers working with the UN mission could be better spent on no-strings-attached grants for hospitals?

The United Nations has a bad track record in Iraq — it supervised the unjust economic embargo during which ordinary Iraqis, especially children, suffered terribly, and since the war it has okayed the US-led occupation in three separate resolutions.

The majority of Australians opposed the war — and they want to see an Iraq free from war and violence. Labor isn't helping this process by buckling to US pressure and maintaining a troop presence in the Arab world.

The troops should be bought home immediately, and we should break the US-Australia alliance, which is primarily a war alliance.

From Green Left Weekly, July 21, 2004.

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From GLW issue 590