(Australian) Brigadier shocks and awes: there is no war on terrorism

[rooboy]

The so-called global war on terrorism does not exist, a high-ranking army officer has declared in a speech that challenges the conventional political wisdom.

In a frank speech, Brigadier Justin Kelly dismissed several of the central tenets of the Iraq war and the war on terrorism, saying the "war" part is all about politics and terrorism is merely a tactic.

Although such wars were fuelled by global issues, they were essentially counter-insurgent operations fought on a local level. This would result in Australian soldiers fighting in increasingly urban environments.

Speaking at a conference on future warfighting, Brigadier Kelly, the director-general of future land warfare, also suggested that the "proposition you can bomb someone into thinking as we do has been found to be untrue".

His speech appears to fly in the face of a comment by the Prime Minister, John Howard, last year that the "contest in Iraq represents a critical confrontation in the war against terror ..."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Brigadier-shocks-and-awes-there-is-no-war-on-terrorism/2005/04/26/1114462041971.html

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

1. Why does he hate Australia?

And Amerika, obviously.

[MisterP]

2. same thing: President Slurrer welcomes the new states of

Queenshland, Weshtern Strala, Shuthrn Strala, New Sath Whales, Tazhmaneya, Viktorya, New Zheeland, uhh... in theh new provns of Airshtrip Two.

[alfredo]

3. That's what I have been thinking. How can you

"fight terror" by going to war with a nation that was not even in the terror game.

[davidinalameda]

4. hope he enjoys his retirement

because his career in the military is now officially over!

[evlbstrd]

5. Will he "retire" into politics?

[Richard Steele]

6. And if so, how quickly can we get him US citizenship?

[evlbstrd]

8. Thought that Aussie politics was implied.

Thinking again. Make him a US Citizen, whether he likes it or not!

[davidinalameda]

9. leave him in Australia

they need all the help they can get as well

[Richard Steele]

11. Good point. Also, us real PATRIOTS might need somewhere to FLEE to.

We shouldn't destroy our 'Plan B' just to help our 'Plan A'.

My SO has family in OZ, so I should hope it stays STRONG for them and me.
If the day comes when the idea of 'LIBERTY' is defeated here in the USA, I hope to have somewhere to emigrate to.

[davidinalameda]

14. I'm going north

I still have to find me a good Canadian man first!

[MADem]

13. He probably knew it before he took the podium!

And ya know what, no amount of brass on your shoulder is worth whoring yourself for a lie. Especially a lie that gets our young killed.

I admire this guy, like I admire Eric Shinseki, who only made one stupid decision during his entire time as Army COS (those idiotic berets). Shinseki told the Congress what would be needed to prevail in a war on terra, they didn't like his numbers, and he was rewarded with the largest asskick I've seen in recent decades. And at the end of the day, Eric was RIGHT.

I think Eric, like this guy, should run for office.

[Matilda]

7. Now will come the insinuations that Brigadier Kelly is unstable.

He was always a bit strange, had odd ideas. Not quite "one of
us", you know.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

10. And General Clark is campaigning on doing the 'WOT' better, right?

Don't trust people who perpetuate and exploit the bogus WOT.

[gordianot]

15. Wonder if the war on terror should look more like the war on poverty?

Memory serves me right that one did not work out either.

Our Victorian house sits on an huge ant hill. The entire neighborhood has fought ants for decades with every chemical you can imagine, no respite. The idea of a war on terror sounds to me a lot like our neighborhood war on ants.

Terror is a prime reaction for Primates, it has served them well as a survival strategy. Maybe humans need to learn to deal with their terror and evolve.

[LynnTheDem]

12. "This war on terrorism is bogus." Michael Meacher; UK MP (PNAC mentioned)

Saturday September 6, 2003

The catalogue of evidence does, however, fall into place when set against the PNAC blueprint. From this it seems that the so-called "war on terrorism" is being used largely as bogus cover for achieving wider US strategic geopolitical objectives. Indeed Tony Blair himself hinted at this when he said to the Commons liaison committee: "To be truthful about it, there was no way we could have got the public consent to have suddenly launched a campaign on Afghanistan but for what happened on September 11" (Times, July 17 2002). Similarly Rumsfeld was so determined to obtain a rationale for an attack on Iraq that on 10 separate occasions he asked the CIA to find evidence linking Iraq to 9/11; the CIA repeatedly came back empty-handed (Time Magazine, May 13 2002).

In fact, 9/11 offered an extremely convenient pretext to put the PNAC plan into action. The evidence again is quite clear that plans for military action against Afghanistan and Iraq were in hand well before 9/11. A report prepared for the US government from the Baker Institute of Public Policy stated in April 2001 that "the US remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma. Iraq remains a destabilising influence to... the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East". Submitted to Vice-President Cheney's energy task group, the report recommended that because this was an unacceptable risk to the US, "military intervention" was necessary (Sunday Herald, October 6 2002).

The conclusion of all this analysis must surely be that the "global war on terrorism" has the hallmarks of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda - the US goal of world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies required to drive the whole project. Is collusion in this myth and junior participation in this project really a proper aspiration for British foreign policy? If there was ever need to justify a more objective British stance, driven by our own independent goals, this whole depressing saga surely provides all the evidence needed for a radical change of course.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/comment/0,12956,1036687,00.html

[BamaBecky]

16. Now here is a truthful, honest & courageous man! n/t