From: "Peter Jovanovic" <peterzoran-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: questions
Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 12:20:15 +1100


hi all

Nate wrote:
>First- THe justification being used for the war drive is Iraq's alleged 
>noncompliance with some UN Security Council resolution, I forget the 
>number. Does anyone know what would constitute Iraq successfully complying 
>with the resolution? I've not been able to find that out, and none of my 
>friends have either.

Without having looked at it too closely - I prefer to leave the dissection 
of ruling class hypocrisy to the Chomskys of the world - I suspect it is 
something like the Ramboulliet (sp?) agreement whose non-signing by 
Milosevic was the purported cassus belli for the Kosovo war. To recap, no 
state in the world would sign something like Ramboulliet, such was the loss 
of sovereignty it demanded. Similarly the weapons inspections have prolly 
been designed to provide cassus belli no matter what.

>Second- Another justification Bush etc have tried using is a supposed link 
>between the Iraqi government and Al Qaida. I know very little about middle 
>east politics, but I was under the impression that Al Qaida were/are 
>hostile to Iraq's government and its ruling party for religious reasons or 
>some such thing. Can anyone give me a brief explanation of this? And would 
>anyone with more knowledge of this area care to make some informed 
>speculation on the impact war would have on future relations between the 
>Iraqi government and Al Qaida? My guess is that the threat of complete 
>destruction would make Iraq's government more willing to consider having a 
>relationship with Al Qaida.

Regarding what 'the Captain' said I too have heard that Osama suggested to 
the Saudi state that he could remove Saddam from Kuwait so as not to have 
the holy land defiled by US troops. Don't know the source though.

Thanks Harald and Monty for your comments on 'Sabotage the War Effort'. We 
are currently revising it for the next anti-war demonstrations here. Harald, 
we will probably take the stuff about the pub being part of the war machine 
out but point we were trying to make a point about the totality of 
capitalist society of which the pub is an essential safety valve as well as 
an important site of discussion and struggle. For instance just before 
Christmas at a Sydney beachside pub the local police were having their Xmas 
party while a local 'gang' of surfers was at a 21st birthday party on 
another floor. A brawl ensued with both sides later accusing the other of 
starting it but the result was that the cops got a sound beating.

Monty, we took the stuff about oil/energy from 'Respect Your Enemies' and 
other Midnight Notes stuff. We have started distributing 'RYE' as a pamphlet 
here but like Scott I was somewhat disturbed by the liberal/populist 
language. This opening towards liberalism is something that sadly seems to 
be common within contemporary (academic) Autonomist Marxism.

Does anyone have suggestions for a good snappy slogan to paint on a banner? 
We were thinking of 'Loyalty to Humanity is Treason to Australia' (thanks 
Race Traitor) but are hoping to do better. We probably want something that 
attacks Australian nationalism as much of the opposition to the war here is 
articulated in terms of war not being in Australia's national interest - 
having Oz seen as the US's lapdog willing to flout the democratic will 
(spit)of the UN will harm 'our' international reputation and similar 
rubbish. For those who don't know Australia is the only US ally aside from 
the UK to commit troops to attack Iraq. So far it's an SAS (army special 
forces) squadron, 14 F/A-18 jetfighters and a few ships. Not much but 
considerably more than Australia's token committment of 3 ships which saw no 
combat in the 91 war and a fair chunk of Australia's small military.

Apologies for the rambling.

cheers
peter

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