|
Saturday, 22 August 2009 |
|
Exercise Talisman Sabre is 22,000 Australian and US troops studying and practicing war. Practicing to invade someone else's country.
My 2009 was an experiment in faith-based affinity groups carrying out interventionary NVDA. Small groups of Christian and/or Gandhian activists started arriving in Yeppoon on July 1 to carry out acts of resistance against the war games, and against the wars Australia is now engaged in. As a support base we created the Martin Luther King Jr House of Christian Nonviolence at Yeppoon (try saying that quickly with a mouthfull of wheatbix).
During July 2009 there were two other major components of a "Peace Convergence" that mobilised both broad opposition to the war-games and community support for implementing a culture of peace. They were the Committed to Change Festival (C2C) at Byfield (July 4-6), and the Peace Convergence held in Rockhampton and Yeppoon (July 10-12).
There were support and solidarity actions in most capital cities in Australia.
This article is an attempt to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of what happened around Exercise Talisman Sabre in July 2009, and speculate upon how our actions might be made better in the future.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Friday, 19 June 2009 |
|
Two dozen Christian nonviolence activists are committed to entering the Shoalwater Bay military exercise area during Talisman Sabre to hold Air Cdre Meier to his statement. Organisation and support will be done out of the Martin Luther King House of Christian Nonviolence at Yeppoon.
One key tool these activists will use is the GME MT410 406 MHz Personel Location Beacon, one of the AccuSat series. The MT410 AccuSat is the smallest and lightest PLB on the market, offering a massive 7 year battery replacement life, an ‘industry first' 7 year warranty, a high intensity LED strobe and a ‘Non Hazmat' battery pack for simple and cost effective transportation - all contributing to the unique AccuSat advantage. Rrp $469.
Let me see, a $469 beacon set off at any strategic point in the exercise area "stops the clock" on a quarter billion dollar war game for, I reckon, 2 or 3 days a throw. Maybe a week. How long can a dozen stop it for?
Three cheers for the asymmetric exercise of power, for showing the limits of US militarism, and for doing what we can to stop the murder in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Read on for my letter to the new Minister for Defence, Senator John Faulkner
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Friday, 19 June 2009 |
|
In December 2005 I broke into Pine Gap as a member of Christians Against ALL Terrorism.
There's an Al Jazeera documentary out now that will give you a real good idea about the kind of NVDA I, my family and our community of activist friends practice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhCKFZhXLRY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQ4UZlv2uU&feature=related
Pine Gap is perhaps the single biggest contribution that Australia makes to war-fighting. Second biggest is the "interoperability" and treaty network we have with the USA, which allows Australian military forces to be integrated with US military forces anywhere in the world (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, anywhere). Third biggest is the support for training and exercises of US troops in Australia.
Recently the Australian Parliament has amended the DSU legislation to better protect Pine Gap, and to close the avenue we used to challenge the so-called "defensive" nature of Pine Gap. It is an offensive weapon.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
