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Australian Catholic Workers Resist Military Excercise & Af/Pak War
 international |
anti-war / imperialism |
press release
 Wednesday July 01, 2009 05:50 by fightfirewithwater09
Talisman Sabre 09
http://www.defence.gov.au/opEx/exercises/ts09/index.htm
is a biennial exercise that involves 20,000 U.S. & 7,000 Australian troops, fighter jets and warships, it is taking place in July in central Queensland, Australia. Australian complicity in the U.S. war on the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan includes the present deployment of 600 Australian (SAS, Special Ops and infantry) troops in Afghanistan, detention in Australia of Afghani refugees fleeing the war and daily targeting information for U.S. bombardment coming from the U.S. N.S.A Pine Gap near outback Alice Springs.
Long time Australian Catholic Worker peace activists Jim Dowling and Ciaron O'Reilly are preparing to travel to the Talisman Sabre exercises in central Queensland, Australia to carry out nonviolent resistance to the war machine they see killing again in Afghanistan.
O'Reilly and Dowling first met in custody in 1978 during the anti-nuclear/civil liberties struggles under the corrupt and authoritarian Joh Bjelkle Petersen Queensland government. By 1982 they were living and working at the Catholic Worker community in West End Brisbane and have since carried out nonviolent resistance together to nuclear war preparations, the war on East Timor and in the opening days of the war on Afghanistan.
Jim Dowling presently works and lives outside of Brisbane on the Peter Maurin Catholic Worker farm with his wife Anne and their seven children. He was one of the Christian Against All Terrorism group that broke into the secretive U.S. N.S.A. Pine Gap base near Alice Springs http://www.pinegap6.org/blog2.html to carry out a citizen's inspection during the recent war on Iraq.
Ciaron O'Reilly spent a year in U.S. prisons as one of the ANZUS Ploughshares convicted of damaging a B52 Bomber in New York on the eve of George Bush Sr.'s war in 1991. O'Reilly was also part of the Pitstop Ploughshares arrested in Ireland in 2003 and charged with $2 1/2 million damage to another U.S. war plane en route to George Bush Jr.'s invasion of Iraq. The group was acquitted of all charges unanimously by an Irish jury in 2006.
O'Reilly stated, "Talisman Sabre is a $250 million exercise in futility. Talisman Sabre is not a game or an exercise it is a fantasy - a war theatre with no civilians! Most of those being killed by American, Australian and Pakistan militaries are innocent civilians, most fatalities have been women and children. The Af/Pak War is presently escalating and expanding. These Talisman Sabre exercises are siginificant preparations for more killing.
The Australian involvement in the war on Afghanistan is now eight years old. U.S. and Pakistani military involvement stretches back over 30 years, from arming and funding the Taliban to now attempting to destroy their own creation with an expanded war against the Pushtun people of northern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Ten Australian troops, hundreds of British and U.S. soldiers and thousands of Afghani civilians have been killed, millions of Afghanis and Pakistanis have been made homeless or forced to flee into exile.
Talisman Sabre occurs at a time of major escalation in the war under the Obama and Rudd administrations. The Australian military has a long history of running off to American wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan that have nothing to do with the defense of Australia. By killing more civilians, with the hi tech war machine on display at Talisman Sabre, we will be creating more terrorism and terrorists. It is important to put our bodies on the line in nonviolent resistance to this deadly cycle"
*Grana, 12, is the sole survivor of a coalition bombing in southern Helmand province that took her arm and her leg, and killed nine members of her family
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jun/25/afgha...istan
*Background on Jim Dowling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Dowling
*Background on Ciaron O'Reilly
-Enough Rope interview with Andrew Denton http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s166615...0.htm
-wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciaron_O'Reilly
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Vid Dateline - Australian Troops "under fire" in Afghanistan (20 min)
http://www.sbs. com.au/dateline/ story/watch/ id/600111/ n/Diggers- Under-Fire
Notorious protester hits Shoalwater - no, not Ciaron!!
http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/07/01/n...ater/
Today we are taking action against the war of our society. So we will be creating a roadblock at the army depot in rockhampton in the position of prostration.
The position of prostration (The cross) we are taking today is one of humility and repentance. We are doing this to ask God for repentance for our role as part of this society. Our role in which our lives and taxes pay for the military equipment and the means to make and create war. This equipment and resources of human lives are used for the purposes of war, which have killed innocent families. E.G Afghanistan, Ameriacn, Iraq, Pakistan families.
We come as a representation of our Australian society to repent for our sins in this.
We come today as concerned Australians asking that we the people of this country and our government take a stand to abandon war as a means of creating peace. We come in the non-violence of christ and his spirit which dwels within and amoungst us.
Amen
Thankyou,
Philip Yew Mob:0414321451 - We will have photos available.
MEDIA RELEASE: Martin Luther King House of Christian Nonviolence at War Games, July 2009. – Exercise Talisman Sabre, Rockhampton 2009.
Christian Peace Activists are gathering through July in Yeppoon to conduct purposeful, prayerful interventionary action against the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Yeppoon is the site of Exercise Talisman Sabre involving 25,000 US and Australian Troops practicing their ‘interoperability’ or ability to act as a single seemless military force. "The US is at war, Australia is at war and civilians are dying as a result of our joint military operations throughout the Middle East," said nonviolence practitioner Margaret Pestorius.
In a loose coalition, Christian nonviolence practitioners have set up the Martin Luther King House of Christian Nonviolence as a nonviolence operations/training centre and residence. "We intend to be a resource for those who are interested in deepening their experience of nonviolent community and action." "We are from many church traditions - the Catholic, Uniting Church, Salvation Army, Baptist and others."
Though somewhat diverse in orientation, the activists come from the traditions of modern Christian nonviolence theorists and activists: Martin Luther King, the Berrigan brothers, Dorothy Day, John Dear and Ched Myers. Moreover we are acting in solidarity with the many ploughshares activists who live out the prophesy "they shall Beat their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift a hand agains nation and we shall study war no more". [isaiah 2:4]
The MLK House can serve as a place where nonviolent affinity groups can be supported in preparing for and carrying through a wide range of anti-militarism actions. During the excercises, some groups will choose to go into the live-firing range of the exercise area to frustrate the war games through nonviolent presence and witness. Air Commodore Meier, a top official in the Defence establishment, when giving evidence to the Senate Committee on Defence, Trade and Foreign Relations 4th June 2009, stated that the Talisman Sabre Exercises would be suspended if a civilian was known to be in the live fire area.
The nonviolence movements against war have a long history of building the peace movement through the explicit resistance to war. Toward the end of his life, Dr Martin Luther King was a staunch opponent of war – including the Vietnam War. He said: "When a country spends more on military defencethan on programs of social uplift it is approaching spiritual death" [speech to Riverside Church 1967 – You Tube]
Nonviolence practitioners have faced lengthy court cases and prison sentences with soldiers, marines and sailors amongst those playing the most significant roles. [see couragetoresist.org] Activists will provide information on GI Rights to US service personnel visting the Rockhamption area during July. Thousands of US GI’s have resisted the wars in Middle East in various ways since 2003. [www.couragetoresist.org] Members of Christians Against All Terrorism who conducted a citizens inspection Pine Gap in 2005 will also attend.
Christian nonviolence practioners will play various roles in Yeppoon. Some will join and support the gathering of peace activists at the Peace Convergence from the 9th –12th July. Nonviolence training will be conducted. Others will conduct separate autonomous activities drawing from a broad rand of nonviolence tactics chosen to build the peace movement in Australia. These will include street theatre, prayer vigils, prayer services that interrupt or block and nonviolent interruption of activities.
Contact Margaret Pestorius 0403214422
See current media:
http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/07/01/n...ater/
Associated media sites
Brisbane Catholic Worker Blog: [Ciaron O’Reilly]http://talismansabre.wordpress.com
AUDIO LINK - ABC Radio Interview with Ciaron O'Reilly on Resistance to Talisman Sabre 09
(shit title but not a bad interview?)
http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2009/07/the-peaceful...nings
For updates through July check this site
http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/
Guardian - Biggest U.S. Offensive ("Strike of the Sword") in Afghanistan in 5 years underway today
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/02/us-offensiv...lmand
First British Commander to be Killed in Combat since the Falklands
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/02/british-regime...istan
Guardian Interactive Guide to new "Strike of the Sword" offensive
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2009/jul/02...istan
On June 26th. we conducted a vigil in ANZAC Square
(photo http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/resist-mi...1402/ ) Brisbane to remember the dead of the Af/Pak war. Our number included children of military veterans, nurses, a nun, teachers, Irish, English, Australian and New Zealand born.
ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) Square embodies the creation myth of Australia with statues of soldiers who have served in farflung wars on rquest of British and American empires. There is little visible mention of the civilian dead.
The Square is centred on the creation myth of Gallipoli, rarely challenged, and the illusion that our security depends on service to empire. The Gallipoli creation myth has been hyped in the past decade by both Conservative and Labor governments to stimulate contemporary recruitment. Eric Bogle's "The Band Played Walting Matilda" remains a solid response. Here performed by The Pogues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lE-YjjZhwc&feature=related
We circled, placing our demands on the perimiter
-Bring Our Toops Home
-Resist Talisman Sabre Military Exercises
-War is Terror is War
We read some of the names of the dead of the AfPak war
* 5 Afghani children killed by Australian SAS
http://www.theage.com.au/world/australian-troops-kill-5....html
* Australian military killed in Afghanistan
http://icasualties.org/oef/byNationality.aspx?hndQry=Au...ralia
* Other foreign military killed in Afghanistan
http://icasualties.org/oef/
*Afghani civilian dead
http://www.j-n-v.org/Afghanistan/Afghan_civilians_death...n.htm
We recalled military resisters presently in brigs and facing the courts for refusing to deploy and resisting the war www.coragetoresist.org
Gary MacLennan (whose father aged 16 fought at the Battle of the Somme) gave an inspring speech about the horrors of war and the roots and the need to resist the escalating Af/Pak War. (Photo http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/resist-mi...1395/ )
Simon Wells with his squeeze box concluded proceedings leading us in song.
On Saturday 4th. of July 9.30 a.m. to Amberley Air Force Base
http://www.raaf.gov.au/bases/amberley.aspx
for an "Independence (from America) Day" vigil.
The RAAF(Royal Australian Air Force) bombed Iraq, transport troops and military to Afghanistan and presently have Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Detachment and the Air Force Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) deployed in Afghanistan. The CRC have 70 personnel based at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.
http://www.defence.gov.au/opEx/global/opslipper/index.htm
One member of a citizen's inspection team was arrested while attempted to board the U.S.S. Essex carrying 4,000 marines to Talisman Sabre exercises. The Essex is presently docked in Cairns for R & R - a growing local industry as 3 direct flights from Guam to Cairns land three times a week.
Cairns Post report and photos on Citizen's Inspection action
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/06/29/49335_local....html