BY JODY BEITZEN
MELBOURNE — A March 18 forum co-sponsored by the Age newspaper and the Press Club entitled, "Iraq: Midnight or Dawn", at Melbourne's Town Hall attracted around 800 people.
While the audience was largely anti-war, most of the panel of speakers presented arguments justifying the war.
International relations analyst Brad Hayes repeated the claims of John Howard and George Bush that all peaceful means to "disarm Iraq" had failed. Age associate editor Pamela Bone and Red Cross official Andrew McCleod supported the war on "humanitarian" grounds, claiming it would "liberate" the Iraqi people. Former foreign affairs department secretary Michael Costello argued that the war was "legal" because of past UN resolutions requiring Iraq to "disarm".
Scott Burchill, lecturer in international relations at Deakin University, pointed to the hypocrisy of the US in assisting in the creation of the brutal regime that Washington now claims to want to liberate Iraqis from.
The strongest anti-war comments, however, came from retired Major-General Alan Stretton, who was Australian chief of staff during the Vietnam War.
"I have seen women and children burned to death after being accidentally burned by a flame thrower", Stretton said. "I can still hear their screams today. I hear today that Australian politicians who have no experience of war themselves are sending Australian men and women to war...
"A war is not justified against a country that poses no threat to Australia."
From Green Left Weekly, March 26, 2003.
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