Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] NMOC - Mural, war, etc

Geordie McMillan geordie_mcmillan@hotmail.com
Fri, 28 Mar 2003 11:21:31 +1100


Even though it is clearly too late to prevent war in Iraq, there are still 
some massive hypocrises, double standards and contradictions occurring that 
make me wonder about the state of the world.

For starters, if the "Coalition of the Willing" were so keen on "regime 
change" for humanitarian purposes because Saddam Hussein is an oppressive 
brutal dictator, which I do not discredit, why was he not brought to trial 
in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity? This would 
have created regime change, in turn allowing creating humanitarian 
advantages for Iraqi civilian population and given the UN a clear run at 
getting rid of any so-called remaining WMDs (stupid term).

The ICC does not have Iraq or the USA as signatories but if the rest of the 
world were smart enough, they would have convinced the UN to arrest Saddam 
and extradite him to a country, such as Turkey, where he could be tried. The 
fact that the USA is not signed up to the ICC is disgusting in my opinion 
and is yet another flagrant display of their "do as I say, not as I do" 
foreign policy and actions.

Also, just because a mural was spotted in a country that the USA has invaded 
portrays the crashing of planes into the former World Trade Centre buildings 
does not mean that they had direct links with that tragedy. For instance, if 
Australia invaded New Zealand, would it not surprise you if there were 
illustrated protests against the invading forces. You just have to look at 
footage from the 30 year old struggles in Belfast to see that.

One final rant: I implore everyone out there to make concerted efforts to 
obtain information about this war and all other news events from a variety 
of sources, particularly if you live in Western nations. We have 
unparalleled access to different perspectives, so let's use them all, and 
that includes Al Jazeera, CNN, ABC (both Australian and American), the BBC, 
SBS (Australia), Michael Moore, NPR, PBS, the works!

I'm trying to be positive and think that if we all get our information from 
a variety of sources, we can adequately create informed and clear opinions 
that may provide a better solution.

Cheers,

Geordie.

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